This Thursday, organizations defending the Angolan journalistic class warned of government initiatives to be considered in parliament that “insult the impartiality and deontological freedom” of the press, namely by recognizing that politicians do journalism.
In a statement released this Thursday, the Union of Journalists of Angola (SJA) and MISA-Angola (Media Institute of South Africa) express their concerns about proposed laws to amend the Law on the Status of Journalists and the Organic Law on the Regulatory Body Social Communication of Angola (ERCA ), which this Thursday began to be evaluated in the National Assembly.
For organizations, the proposed amendment to the Charter of Journalists “introduces norms that offend impartiality, impartiality and deontological freedom of journalists, as it allows the hypothesis of a political party activist, a member of a deliberative body such as the Central Committee or another, to practice journalism at the same time.”
“The current law (Law No. 5/17 of January 23 on the Regulations on Journalists) establishes that engaging in journalistic activity is incompatible with the position of a member of the leadership of a political party (par. e) Art. 5. However, the proposal submitted by the executive branch to the National Assembly eliminates this incompatibility, opening the door for indiscriminateness between journalism and party politics,” the note emphasizes.
SJA and MISA-Angola consider this proposal “an insulting intrusion into the professional ethics of journalists”, also realizing that there is a “clear intent to confuse and discredit journalism in Angola”.
“The Union of Angolan Journalists and MISA-Angola, on the other hand, consider that the proposal to amend the Organic Law on the Social Communications Regulatory Authority of Angola (ERCA) is inconsistent with the Basic Law of Independent Administrative Bodies in regard to the composition, appointment of members, as well as the true regulatory powers (licensing authorities, advertising agencies and others, for example),” they point out.
In their position, the SJA and MISA-Angola understand that the proposal submitted by the executive to the National Assembly “grossly violates the Basic Law for Independent Administrative Entities (Law No. Appeal to Parliament in the sense of harmonizing the executive’s proposal with the Basic Law, as well as maintaining inconsistency between being a journalist and being a member of the leadership of a political party”.