Beaten, shot, abducted — but Mozambicans are determined to carry on talking
‘We have a generation of young people who did not know the one-party era…. Using social networks above all and the press, people will continue to talk’
Maputo — Abductions, beatings, surveillance, threats and even fatal shootings — critics of the government in Mozambique say that voicing dissent is increasingly dangerous. The latest victim is media commentator Ericino de Salema, who in March was bundled by gunmen into a vehicle outside the offices of the Mozambican Union of Journalists in Maputo. Two hours later, he was dumped on the outskirts of the city with a broken arm, fractured legs and severe bruising. Salema, who had received threatening phone calls, is an analyst on Pontos da Vista (Points of View), a leading show aired by the private STV channel, on which he often criticises government policies. His assault came less than two years after another commentator on the programme, Jose Jaime Macuane, was abducted, shot four times in the legs and also dumped outside Maputo. "Is it coincidence that these two people are victims of brutal violence and abandoned in the same area, without anything stolen from them?" Jeremias Langa, t...
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