(MISA/IFEX) – The Maputo Sunday paper “Domingo” has apparently begun to censor the advertising it publishes according to its political content. “Domingo” is a former state-owned and controlled newspaper that was privatised in 1983. It is owned by a group of business people who make up the management and appoint the editor-in-chief. According to the […]
(MISA/IFEX) – The Maputo Sunday paper “Domingo” has apparently begun to censor the advertising it publishes according to its political content. “Domingo” is a former state-owned and controlled newspaper that was privatised in 1983. It is owned by a group of business people who make up the management and appoint the editor-in-chief.
According to the 28 March 2000 issue of the independent fax newspaper “Metical”, “Domingo” refused to publish a paid advertisement from lecturers on strike at the Social Science Faculty (UFICS) at the Eduardo Mondlane University.
Initially “Domingo”, a former state controlled newspaper, accepted payment for the advertisement. Strikers later learned that the matter was ultimately decided not by the advertising department, but by the paper’s top management.
Instead of running the advertisement on 26 March, “Domingo” carried an editorial saying that it was refusing to carry a text that “mixed together the visit of [East Timorese leader] Xanana Gusmao with the strike, and which complained of an authoritarian and repressive atmosphere at UFICS”.
The advertisement was a letter to Gusmao, which stemmed from the fact that last September, staff and students at UFICS organised demonstrations in solidarity with the people of East Timor, a fact which “Domingo” failed to report.
The strikers’ letter read, “When people of East Timor were being massacred six months ago, teachers and students organised the first protest demonstration in Maputo, on the university campus. The demonstration was prepared and organised by teachers and students of UFICS. Regrettably right now the same teachers who organised that demonstration of solidarity with you (Gusmao) and your people are not teaching their classes.
“We wish that you and the people of East Timor will enjoy great success in the hard task of rebuilding your country, and we reaffirm our determination to struggle for just causes”, the letter continued.
Since “Domingo” refused to publish the letter, the strikers have made sure that a member of the Timorese liberation movement would deliver a copy to Gusmao.
