Media Institute of Southern Africa : Promoting Media Diversity . Pluralism . Self-Sufficiency . Independence

Over 900 people work on the editorial side of the media, ranging from volunteer producers in local community radios, to professional journalists on the national media.

But this growth is overshadowed by an increasing trend by figures in Mozambican politics and in the judiciary itself to resort to the courts when the media publish something they find offensive.

The most serious judicial harassment, Vieira Mario recalled, came in December 2006, when equipment was seized from the private media company SOICO, putting at risk the continued operations of its television station, STV, and its other initiatives. A judge in the Maputo city court ordered the seizure because of a debt owed to someone who had never worked at SOICO.

The attack on SOICO, Vieira Mario said, was "disproportionate and unjustified". But rather than distancing themselves from the threatening behaviour of their colleague, Mozambican judges stood in solidarity with him, and the Mozambican Association of judges (a body never heard of before or since) held a press conference in January 2007 in his defence.

In the two years that he has been at the helm of MISA-Mozambique, Vieira Maria added, "more than 10 journalists, editors and media directors have been summoned by institutions of the administration of justice for interrogations, or to stand trial for libel or defamation".

Exorbitant sums have been claimed in damages, Vieira Mario added, which "clearly express a desire for vengeance against press freedom, rather than any feelings of justice. The purpose is clearly to frighten journalists and provoke the bankruptcy of the companies that employ them".

The press also ran into serious problems from the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. In 2007 the Assembly unanimously passed a new law on the organisation of the courts. Most of the law was uncontroversial – but one article banned cameras and microphones from trials.

In the past, the decision on allowing or prohibiting the broadcasting of trials had been left up to individual judges. Now they were stripped of that discretion, so that there could be no repeat of the live broadcast, from beginning to end, of the trial in 2002-03 of the six men who murdered the country's top investigative reporter, Carlos Cardoso.