(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Fernando Dias Dos Santos, RSF protested the detention of Isaias Soares, a Voice of America (VOA) correspondent in Malanje. Recalling Angola’s international commitments, Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, called for the journalist’s “immediate release” and asked that “private radio stations be entitled to continue broadcasting their news […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Fernando Dias Dos Santos, RSF
protested the detention of Isaias Soares, a Voice of America (VOA)
correspondent in Malanje. Recalling Angola’s international commitments,
Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, called for the
journalist’s “immediate release” and asked that “private radio stations be
entitled to continue broadcasting their news bulletins freely.”
According to RSF’s information, Soares, a VOA correspondent in Malanje, a
city east of Luanda, was arrested by police officers on 19 August 1999. He
was detained in the city, which is surrounded by troops of the Union for the
Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebel movement. On the eve of his
arrest, Soares had broadcast a report in the course of the programme
“Angola, linha directa, linha aberta”, during which he denounced the
security forces’ practices. According to the journalist, who notably
recalled the testimony of the person in charge of the World Food Programme’s
logistics in Malanje, soldiers and police officers were allegedly
misappropriating products intended for civilians. This arrest took place
only ten days after the arrest of four journalists from the Catholic radio
station Radio Ecclesia, which had broadcast an interview with UNITA
President Jonas Savimbi (see IFEX alerts of 17, 13, 11 and 10 August 1999).
