A surprising but brutal enemy of freedom of expression in Mozambique

A pattern of behaviour shows that electricity utility EDM will crush the little people that stand in its way

Good afternoon. What is the biggest threat to the freedom of the press in Mozambique? If you answered “electricity utility EDM,” you might be exaggerating, but only slightly.

Armindo Vilanculos, a reporter for the Kusinga community radio station in Massinga, Inhambane, is currently being sued by EDM, a huge and powerful state-owned monopoly, for reporting last year on local allegations that local EDM staff were accepting bribes to help people jump the queue to get connected to the electricity grid.

Vilanculos, according to a report by state news agency AIM, contacted the local director of EDM with the allegations; he refused to comment, telling Vilanculos to contact the company spokesperson. The radio ran the story, based on local testimonies; and EDM is now suing the journalist.

EDM’s action is shocking but sadly not unprecedented. In 2016, the company brought a case against a community radio journalist in Macomia, Cabo Delgado, who had dared to quote an EDM employee without her permission. Arlindo Victorino was sentenced to a year in jail by a local court; on appeal, the penalty was commuted to one year’s salary.

SEE: Jailed journalist fined a year’s salary for quoting a Mozambique state employee

Fined a whole year’s salary, simply for doing your job, thanks to a frivolous complaint by a state-owned utility — and one which, even when it is not on the attack, has an outsized influence on the media in Mozambique. It has one of the largest media budgets around, which it distributes generously through expensive advertising — odd behaviour for a company providing a basic service, with no competitors — and which it can of course withhold from media who fall out of favour.

Meanwhile, locals living in the way of the proposed Mphanda Nkuwa dam, in Tete province, are having their right to freedom of expression and assembly curtailed, for fear they might obstruct the latest mega-project in which EDM has a major share.

EDM’s direct role, if any, in this suppression is not clear. But it is the body that could and should give the order to make it stop. But given the institution’s apparent attitude to freedom of expression, that seems sadly unlikely to happen.

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Agenda:

• Today: First plenary session of the ministry of labour and partners for the start of minimum wage negotiations

• Tomorrow: Launch of the World Bank’s Mozambique Economic Update report; Hotel Polana, Maputo, 14:00-16:00. In attendance: Finance minister Max Tonela, World Bank vice president Victoria Kwakwa, and country head Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough

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From the Zitamar Live Blog:

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Also in the news:

• Nyusi-Momade summit ends without consensus on district elections

• Renamo demilitarisation process to be concluded this month 

• Public finances would be unsustainable without TSU, says Tonela 

• Terrorists will never again occupy Mocimboa da Praia, says Rwandan commander 

• World Bank gives positive assessment of recovery in Cabo Delgado

• Solving state airport and airline companies’ problems will take time, minister says 

Today’s front pages in Maputo. Photo © Faizal Chauque / Zitamar News