Documents, equipment and furniture at the Maputo offices of investigative publication Canal de Moçambique have been destroyed in a fire suspected as arson.
Editor Matias Gente said of Sunday night’s fire: ‘We are not naïve to think this is a common crime. It is because of our work that certain sections of society have not been pleased.’
It is not clear who might have instigated this, but the publication has previously incurred the ire of the Mozambican authorities. In June, it was taken to court by the government for having published documents about the insurgency in Cabo Delgado. The publication was accused of having violated national security.
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi called for an investigation, saying freedom of the press was a pillar of democracy.
Media freedom has been under scrutiny in Mozambique recently. Aside from his run-ins with the Mozambican authorities, Gente has also been assaulted. And, in the past year, two journalists – Amade Abubacar and Abu Mbaruco – have disappeared.
[Hansueli Krapf, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11922198]]