The popular action is aimed at the holder of the executive power (João Lourenço), the Social Communication Regulation entity and the boards of directors of four public media: Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA), Radio Nacional de Angola, Jornal de Angola and from TV Zimbo.
In a letter addressed to the counselor judge and president of the Supreme Court, Joel Leonardo, the underwriters point out the violation of the duty of exemption, since not all the intervening parties have the same opportunity to comment on the facts, through contradictory and address the need to produce impartial information.
What has not happened, especially in the case of public media, which have demonstrated "unequivocally and frighteningly" the violation of all the principles enshrined in the Constitution, they maintain.
Among the subscribers are names such as the Portuguese-Angolan activist and musician Luaty Beirão, the writers José Eduardo Agualusa and José Luís Mendonça, the doctor Luís Bernardino, the journalist Carlos Rosado, the reverends Júlio Candeeiro and Ntoni a Nzinga, the priest Jacinto Pio Wacussanga , sociologist Cesaltina Abreu and actor Orlando Sérgio.
"We are witnessing, with deafening silence, an unjustified, enormous and unconstitutional favoring of certain political actors to the detriment of other actors, in flagrant prejudice and distortion of the Angolan community that is deprived of enjoying an essential public good", they criticize.
The public and intervened media "has become a sepulcher of the norms of ethics and deontology proper to the journalistic profession", describes the document, stressing that the media "have become an instrument of political and partisan propaganda for the ruling party , opting for an itinerary that is totally opposite to that required either by the Constitution or by the Press Law".
This "unbalanced action" translates into "enormous damage to the population", due to "unbridled disinformation" and harmful to the consolidation of a democratic rule of law.
The subscribers regret "the accelerated degradation of the basic powers of the Republic and Democracy" and speak of "censorship of the public media, emphasizing that their performance stands out in the negative", for granting more airtime to one of the parties and for segregate and exclude the democratic opposition.
A clear stance of partiality, which is part of an "anti-democratic and discriminatory" editorial line, can be read in the letter, which also advances with examples.
In particular, he highlights the holding of rallies chaired by the MPLA president and Angolan president, João Lourenço , which were fully covered by the main public television channel (TPA).
"On the 25th of June alone, TPA's information spaces had approximately 95.6% of the content linked to the MPLA and only 4.4 percent were distributed among the other parties, a fact that clearly demonstrates the monopolization of TPA, which is being used as a propaganda vehicle for the MPLA", says the letter.
"The monopolization of airtime by the party that supports the government, is not only verified in TPA, it extends to all public media, whether television, radio or written, and those involved", add the signatories, appealing to that the popular action "be considered valid".
As a result, the President of the Republic must be condemned for violating the duty to comply with the Constitution, the members of the ERCA should be dismissed "for failure to fulfill the mission for which they were invested" and the boards of directors of the Media Bodies should be condemned to pay fines, dismissal of managers and initiation of criminal proceedings on suspicion of committing the crime provided for and punishable by article 212 of the Penal Code (Discrimination).
