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Alert

Photojournalist and newspaper censored, equipment confiscated

(MISA/IFEX) - On 24 August 2005, Angolan police harassed and censored a photojournalist with the independent weekly "Angolense", allegedly for reporting in an area without prior authorisation.

Photojournalist Francisco Zua was taking photographs in one of the more crowded streets of the capital, Luanda, when a policeman stopped him and said he had no authorisation to report on the area.

"I was reporting on street vendors in Sao Paulo when they came to me and grabbed the camera," Zua explained. Sao Paulo is known as Luanda's most troubled and dangerous neighbourhood.

According to the reporter, the police officer grabbed his camera and removed the memory card before releasing him. The newspaper's editor-in-chief, Suzana Mendes, queried the police station commander about the incident and was instructed to take the camera to the police station to ensure that the memory card belonged to the camera in question. The police seized the equipment, however, and deleted the entire content of the memory card, Mendes told MISA-Angola.

"We got the camera back but without the photos we needed this week, even those we took elsewhere," Mendes told MISA-Angola.