In a public note, the AJPD also requests that the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication formally initiate a dialogue with Camunda News, "so that even if by mere hypothesis and in the logic of the State administration there are irregularities, for force of the principle of good faith to which the public administration of the State is subject, they are remedied, putting an end to the permanent suspicion of illegalities fed by the public administration of the State".
At stake is the decision taken by the owner of TV Camunda News to suspend the broadcast of the digital channel through the platforms Youtube and Facebook, alleging the pressure it has been suffering from the authorities, who question the legality of the project.
In the note, AJPD warns the national and international community, defenders of freedom of the press and expression, in particular, and human rights defenders, in general, "to the lack of good faith of the public administration of the Angolan State in relation to the treatment to be given to broadcasters of content on social networks, as is the case of Camunda News".
According to the association, the public administration of social communication and new information technologies "has not acted to promote the exercise and enjoyment of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, creating, in bad faith, doubts and obstacles to the implementation activities that are not prohibited by law".
"The AJPD understands that the State's public administration is failing in relation to the duty to contribute to the exercise of citizens' fundamental rights, by inventing obstacles that are neither in the letter nor in the spirit of the Press Law", underlines the document.
The association "draws the attention of the national and international community to the repeated behavior of the public administration, which intends at all costs to limit, prevent, asphyxiate and even end Camunda News, with the first attempt to do so taking place in May 2022 , during the pre-electoral [campaign] period".
Finally, AJPD deplores "the repeated behavior" of the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC), manifested in this process and recalls that the Angolan legal system does not grant the investigative body "the competence to threaten and terrorize citizens who exercise their rights, within the framework of legality, or even citizens who are eventually at fault in terms of compliance with the laws".
