MAPUTO – Two journalists who were arrested while investigating rhino poaching in Mozambique two weeks ago, have been released.
Paperwork needs to be completed after which they are free to leave the country.
Mr Bartholomäus Grill, Africa correspondent for the German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, and photographer Mr Torbjörn Selander of Sweden, were arrested on February 16 in the village of Mavodze just south of Massingir.
These two towns are known to be rhino-poaching hot spots.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Africa programme research associate, Ms Kerry Patterson, said they brought the incident to the attention of the Mozambican Embassy in Washington DC and also published an alert on Friday.
“We worked with one of the journalists, as well as the head of their legal team and a senior editor at Der Spiegel, to try to get the charges dropped,” Patterson said.
Selander phoned CPJ yesterday, the day the two were supposed to appear in court in Mavodze on charges of trespassing and invasion of privacy, to say that all the charges had been dropped.
“We were notified on Monday morning that all charges had been dropped, and that aside from some paperwork to complete, they were free to leave,” said Patterson.
Ms Georgina Zandamela, the press officer at the Mozambican state attorney general’s office, as well as Mr Pedro Cossa, a press representative at the police central command in Maputo, also assisted in the quest to free the journalists.
Lowvelder made contact with the editorial team of Der Spiegel, and they undertook to send the story produced by the journalists to this newspaper.
CPJ says that 46 per cent of all journalists arrested in the world were investigating political issues, 38 per cent were covering wars and 15 per cent were arrested for investigating criminal actions and crime.
60 journalists were killed last year.
Since the beginning of the year, five freelance journalists had been killed in South Sudan.
Algeria is still the fourth most dangerous country in the world for journalists. Patterson remarked, “Four African countries are under the 20 deadliest countries for freelancers in the world, namely Algeria, Somalia, Rwanda and South Sudan”.
The CPJ is an independent, non-profit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide.
