Journalists set up their equipment ahead of a press briefing and electoral result update from Angola’s National Electoral Commission in Luanda on August 25, 2022. CPJ has joined two Angola-based media rights organizations to call for Angola to improve press freedoms ahead of the country’s Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in January 2025. |Photo: AFP/John Wessels|.
Media support organizations called on the government of Angola to improve its record of ensuring the safety of journalists and upholding press freedom.
The Committee to Protect Journalists and two Angola-based media rights organizations have made a joint submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for an enabling environment for journalists in the southern African nation of Angola.
The submission, dated July 16, 2024, was made ahead of Angola’s January 2025 Universal Periodic Review (UPR), during which the U.N. member states on the council will assess its human rights record and make recommendations for improvement in keeping with its human rights obligations under international law.
In the submission, CPJ, the Angolan Journalists’ Syndicate, and the Angolan chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa document four years of judicial harassment of journalists through criminal defamation and insult laws, suspension of broadcasts and broadcast permissions, harassment and detention of members of the press, and the enactment of new laws that will further restrict media freedom.
The three organizations recommend that Angola improve its press freedom record, including by freeing journalist Carlos Raimundo Alberto, who has been detained since 2023, desisting from imprisoning journalists for their work, as well as abolishing criminal defamation and repealing other laws that criminalize journalism.
