Maputo — Members of the Mozambican Presidential Guard, the military unit that protects President Filipe Nyusi, attacked a journalist as he was interviewing the President on Saturday, after the Mozambican national football team had qualified for the African Cup of Nations by defeating Benin by three goals to two.
According to the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa), Alfredo Junior, a journalist on the online sports portal, Lance MZ, was asking Nyusi for his reaction to the match, when members of the Presidential Guard dragged him away before the President could complete his answer.
Junior told MISA "after I asked the President an inoffensive question, to which he was already answering, I was violently pulled away by the security guards. I protested, but they didn't want to listen to me, and much less to the President'.
In the attack the guards damaged Junior's cell phone and stabilizer.
Later Nyusi apologized to Junior for what had happened, which he blamed on the emotions arising from the Mozambican victory and qualification.
MISA condemned the assault "an any other form of aggression or intimidation against journalists'.
The only excuse for the attack is that journalists are not allowed to use cell phones to take pictures of the President. MISA believed that this makes no sense, since "In these days of high technological progress, a cell phone has ceased to be mere instrument for interpersonal communication, and is a highly relevant tool for media production'.
If there were any genuine security fears about Alfredo Junior's phone, the MISA statement pointed out, the guards could have inspected the device rather than assaulting its owner. Junior had used exactly the same phone at other events attended by Nyusi in Mozambique and abroad, without eliciting any violent response.
MISA also criticised Nyusi for downplaying the seriousness of the attack, blaming it on mere emotions stirred up by a football match. Such statements, MISA warned, might normalize "deviant behavior'.
MISA called for Nyusi to take disciplinary action against those guards who had disobeyed his order to stop the assault. MISA believed that firm action by the President might discourage future attacks against press freedom.
