Angola denies entry to Mozambican journos, SADC activists

Joana Macie and Manuel Cossa were invited as participants to partake in a workshop, organised by the Luanda-based journalism school, Centro de Formação de Jornalistas and the South Africa-based NGO Gender Links, on the theme of "Economic reporting and gender".

The incident occurred ahead of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) which is scheduled to take place in Luanda this week.

Angolan authorities last week denied entry to at least 17 members of southern African NGOs wanting to participate in a civil-society forum ahead of the summit and had confiscated advocacy documents from Zimbabwean activists, according to news reports.

Authorities suddenly cancelled the event, which was scheduled to feature discussions on governance, accountability, media freedom, and access to information domains in which Angola lags behind according to research by CPJ.

"We're concerned by the Angolan immigration authorities' refusal to allow Joana Macie and Manuel Cossa to enter Angola," said CPJ Africa Advocacy coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We call on the Angolan government to explain why the journalists were expelled and to allow them to attend the event."

No explanation

Macie, a reporter of the Mozambican daily Noticias, told CPJ that Angolan immigration officials confiscated her passport without any exlpanation and took her to a room with other passengers, including journalist Cossa, editor of Magazine Independente, immediately after landing in Luanda. Angolan officials forced the journalists and other passengers, including delegates of southern African civil-society organisations, who arrived to attend the SADC 7th Civil Society Forum, onto a bus and then onto a plane back to South Africa, she said.

According to news reports, three other Mozambican journalists, Hermínia Machel of state television station TVM, Orlando Ngovene of Radio Mozambique, and Francisco Carmona of Savana were not denied entry.

Not because they're jounalists

Spokesman of Angola's Migration and Foreigners Services, Simão Milagres was quoted as saying the journalists were turned back "due to the lack of entry visas." Milagres then denied any suggestion that Cossa and Macie had been rejected because they were journalists.

Copies of Cossa and Macie's passports which were obtained by CPJ show that the two journalists were granted short-term visas, identical to those of the other three journalists, to be in Angola from August 9 through August 16.