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ANGOLA URGED TO REFORM PRESS, DEFAMATION LAWS

International legal rights groups have called on Angola to reform its press and defamation laws and comply with a recent UN Human Rights Committee ruling that found the government violated an international human rights treaty when it jailed a journalist for criticising the president.

The Open Society Justice Initiative and Interights say Angola should amend its laws to bring them in line with international standards, including decriminalising the defamation of public officials.

The organisations represented Rafael Marques de Morais before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, which ruled on 30 March 2005 that Angola violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights when it jailed Marques in 1999 for writing articles critical of President José Eduardo dos Santos.

The Committee gave the Angolan authorities 90 days to compensate Marques and take steps to prevent similar violations in future. No such steps have been taken to date.

Marques was arrested and imprisoned in Luanda on 16 October 1999, after he published an editorial in the newspaper "Agora" that said the president was responsible "for the destruction of the country" and "accountable for the promotion of incompetence, embezzlement and corruption."

Marques was detained for 40 days without charges, then tried and convicted for causing "injury" to the President. He was sentenced to a six-month prison term, which was affirmed but suspended on appeal, and ordered to pay damages to the president. For nearly a year after his conviction, Marques? passport was withheld, and he was prevented from leaving the country.

According to a 2004 report by Human Rights Watch, Angolan laws continue to impose greater restrictions on freedom of expression than permissible under the constitution or international law. For more than two years, government leaders have promised to amend the laws but no action has been taken. Under the current law, defamation crimes are punishable by prison terms ranging from two to eight years.

Human Rights Watch says influential officials are able to take advantage of these laws to silence criticism as a result of a continuing lack of independence in the judiciary.

Visit:
- Open Society Institute Justice Initiative: http://www.justiceinitiative.org/db/resource2?res_id=102944
- Interights: http://www.interights.org/
- Human Rights Watch Report: http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/angola/2004/
- International Press Institute Report on Angola: http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/Africa/angola.htm
- ARTICLE 19 Study of Defamation Laws in Southern Africa
http://www.article19.org/pdfs/tools/def-campaigns-sadc-overview.pdf
- Overview of International Standards on Defamation:
http://www.article19.org/pdfs/analysis/international-defamation-standards-note-feb-20.pdf