The President, João Lourenço, granted this Thursday, at the Presidential Palace, a collective interview with five news organizations accredited in the country, namely the newspapers Expansão, from Angola, O País, TV Zimbo and the Lusa news agency.
The AJPD, in a statement made public this Thursday, "deplores the behavior shown by the Communication Office of the Angolan President, which forced journalists to send questions in advance, in a clear demonstration of censorship, contrary to paragraph 2 of the article 40 of the Constitution".
The non-governmental organization recalls that in 2017, at the beginning of the President's consulate, the approach to the press was characterized by the holding of annual collective conferences, "extensive to all bodies, and not restricted to a small group of five bodies".
In this note, signed by its president Serra Bango, the AJPD also says that it follows with "a lot of attention and concern the posture that has been expressed by the various media, especially public".
"Characterized by an attitude of partiality in the dissemination of information and the repeated practice of censoring information when it is not of interest to the instituted power, in a clear violation of article 48 of the Constitution", the document reads.
The Justice, Peace and Democracy Association also appeals to the bodies that oversee Angola's media policy to "end censorship practices and promote the plural exercise of information".
