His Excellency Jose Eduardo dos Santos
President of the Republic of Angola
Gabinete do Presidente
Luanda
Angola

Vienna, 21 October 1999

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, is deeply concerned about the continued detention of freelance journalist Rafael Marques.

On 14 October 1999, Marques – who is also the Angolan representative of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa – was charged with defaming the president in an article published in July in the weekly, Agora. In the article, Marques referred to the president of Angola as a “dictator.”

On 16 October, officers of the Department of National Criminal Investigation (DNIC) arrested Marques at his Luanda home and detained him at the Labortório prison in Luanda. We understand that he has been refused access to a lawyer or to his family, and that he has gone on hunger strike to protest his detention.

Marques has been charged under Law 7/78, or the Law on Crimes Against State Security, and faces a prison sentence of two to eight years. His arrest is only the latest incident in the authorities’ clamp-down on journalists critical of the government of Angola. William Tonet, editor of the bi-weekly, Folha 8, was arrested on 2 October and detained for three days. Gilberto Neto, a journalist for Folha 8, was briefly held by the DNIC on 3 and 6 September. Since 1994, five journalists have been murdered in Angola. All of them were known for their critical coverage of your government.

IPI strongly urges Your Excellency to ensure that Rafael Marques is immediately and unconditionally released and that the media in Angola is judged by civil libel laws, not by criminal statutes. We further urge that you do everything in your power to ensure that the independent press is allowed to carry out its work without further harassment.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director