"The situation is serious and we believe that the competent bodies, in this case the commander general, should deign to explain to society why the national police have been assaulting, violating journalists in the exercise of their duties," said this Tuesday the secretary general of the JSA, Teixeira Cândido.
The unionist said that with the "recurrent assaults" the police run the risk of seeing "a journalist killed, simply because he moved to cover a demonstration, which is a fact of public interest.
The Secretary General of the JSA spoke this Tuesday at a press conference in Luanda, where he condemned the violations of journalists' freedoms in the exercise of their activity, especially in covering demonstrations.
"The most frightening thing is that the country's authorities are not predisposed to provide clarification or repair the damage," he lamented.
At least six journalists were assaulted and arrested, in Luanda, while covering the demonstration on 24 October, which resulted in the arrest of more than 100 activists, who a week later were subjected to summary trial.
Following this demonstration, whose police repression was repudiated in different social and political circles in the country.
The President, João Lourenço, regretted, on October 29, the arrest of journalists, who were covering the demonstration frustrated by the national police, and said he hoped that "arrests of journalists duly accredited and in full exercise of their duties will not happen again".
However, in the last rally on November 11, where young people were protesting for better living conditions, two more journalists were arrested, including a Reuters correspondent who was left with the damaged camera.
Teixeira Cândido, who classified the latest events as very serious, also recalled that on November 10, journalist Cristóvão Luemba, correspondent of the Angolan Catholic Broadcaster in Cabinda province, was forced to report to the local Criminal Investigation Service (SIC), "for interviewing demonstrators.
"The SIC had no judicial order, nor did it say why it forced the journalist to go to the SIC. He stayed there for a few minutes, was not heard, and we condemn these kinds of intimidation," he stressed.
The Secretary General of the Journalists' Union announced that the journalist will file a lawsuit against the SIC staff in that northern province this Tuesday.
He also recalled the physical attacks against the journalists Leo Bogotá, Reuters correspondent, and Fernando Guelengue, who were arrested in the November 11 demonstration, considering them "reprehensible acts".
The union leader also said he had already discussed the matter with the former interior minister and current police general commander, "but unfortunately," he stressed, the assaults against the journalists "did not stop.
The President's appeal, he noted, "conveyed some reassurance to the journalistic class, but unfortunately the national police themselves completely ignored the President's appeal.
"Unfortunately we are seeing the national police assaulting professionals, and the question we are asking is how can we face a police that should act on the basis of the law, but does not", he pointed out.
"You can't repair the damage of physical aggression, what we understand is that in fact the national police will have to repair that damage, the union will write to the general command of the police to repair the damage done to colleague Leo Bogotá," he assured.
