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increase caused by this month’s 40 percent oil price increase.Muianga told MISA-Mozambique that he and his colleague were doing their jobs when theynoticed skirmishes nearby and decided to take some photographs. They realised that municipalpolice officers were chasing street vendors and seizing their products.“When I was taking pictures I was approached by a man in civilian clothes who asked me whoI was. I told him, ‘a reporter’ and he asked [me] to identify myself and I complied immediately.Off he went and came back with a group [of] seven policemen and they started to hit me.”Muianga and his colleague were hit repeatedly and were eventually thrown into the police vanand taken to the station where he was questioned.“After the questioning they acknowledged their mistake and released me and my colleague,”Muianga said, adding that Senda’s cellphone was momentarily seized by the police.Municipal Police Commander Alberto Muchanga has since publicly apologised for the incident.He promised that those responsible for the act would not go unpunished, and added thatviolence should not be used by the police.· ALERTDate: March 28, 2005Persons/Institutions: Media in MozambiqueViolation: CensoredOn March 28 2005, the Maputo City Court’s eighth section, in an unprecedented move, decidedto bar the media from covering a libel case involving one of six men sentenced to longprison terms in January 2003 for the murder of Mozambique’s foremost investigative journalist,Carlos Cardoso.The case is of great public interest since it pits Attorney General Joaquim Madeira againstMomad Assife Abdul Satar (also known as “Nini”). Madeira has alleged that Satar libelled himin open letters published in the weekly “Demos”.On March 28, journalists were told that the judge presiding over the case had decided that thetrial would be held “behind closed doors”, and said “it is secret.” The ban not only affectedjournalists, but also the public at large. Only those who were directly involved in the trial wereallowed into the courtroom.None of the court officials approached by journalists could explain the legal basis for thesecrecy of the trial. In principle, trials are public matters in Mozambique. Judges can closecourts to the public in sensitive cases, such as those involving rape, in order to protect thevictim.In 2002, MISA lauded Judge Augusto Raul Paulino, who made judicial history in Mozambiqueand internationally by allowing full media coverage of the Cardoso case court proceedings.It was the first time in Mozambican history that the media was allowed to bring camerasand recording equipment into the court, a freedom that surprised even the media itself.· ALERTupdateDate: Febuary 22, 2005Persons/Institutions: HorizonteViolation: ThreatenedThe mayor of Pemba has threatened that he was going to launch legal proceedings against thelocal Horizonte newspaper for having published an article about an imminent strike by the citycouncil’s employees over demands for better working conditions.· ALERTDate: January 27, 2005Persons/Institutions: Jeremias LangaViolation: Beaten, threatenedOn January 27 2005, editor of the Soico group and television journalist, Jeremias Langa, wasSo This Is Democracy? 2005-85-Media Institute of Southern Africa