Fernando Macedo, in an open letter addressed to the Catholic bishops, which Lusa had access to this Tuesday, stated that the proof that Angola lives under the yoke of an oppressive power is "the daily practice of the State's media".
A "practice that violates the constitutional principles of equality before the law, impartiality, public integrity, public interest, justice, the right of political parties in opposition and the right of reply and reply of the parties represented in parliament to the declarations of the executive", reads the letter.
The well-known jurist said that "for more than 20 years the Angolan Catholic bishops, like other individuals and other institutions, with civility and in a peaceful way, have appealed to the political power that governs the country to put an end to the violence that is practiced by Organs of state communication".
The aforementioned bodies, said the jurist, have become "organs of propaganda and favor of the party-state", adding that this type of practice "worsts before and during electoral campaigns".
"It was like that in 2008, 2012, 2017 and it will be like that in 2022. The state media are a mirror of political oppression in Angola, for the practice of disrespect, with impunity, of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola (CRA) and the Press Law", he considered.
For the university professor, the rulers "created the Republic of Impunity for themselves and those who support them by privatizing the State, replacing the law with their arbitrary will".
"It is this authoritarian culture that is at the basis of the informational violence that we witness every day with our eyes and ears in TPA (Public Television of Angola) and in the rest of the State's media", pointed out the jurist.
"We must remain silent for fear of insults, persecution, the probable use of the National Police, the Armed Forces, the State Information Services and the judiciary against us for peacefully exercising the right to report and intending that the CRA and the law are actually respected by the rulers?", questioned Macedo, in the letter to the Catholic bishops.
