Until recently, the journalist Hamilton Cruz was one of the faces of the Public Television of Angola, in which he guarantees a strong tendency to “support” the MPLA. The day after the general elections on August 24, he decided to leave and now lives in fear of reprisals. Expresso called for help and told his story.
The journalist presented the “Jornal da Meia-Noite” and, at the end of three months on the channel, says he has attended various situations such as the withdrawal of the news feed of pieces on opposition parties or that there will be a negative return for the government party in the social networks.
In the early hours of the 25th, the day after the general election, Hamilton Cruz decided that he had reached the limit. He asked for a poll he said had been “commissioned by TPA” to be removed from the schedule, however his show did not air due to a National Electoral Commission conference. “At one point I wanted to exercise the right of conscience, but I was scared and afraid for my physical integrity. That day there were police and security forces with firearms and I, as a precaution, accepted upset”, says the journalist.
On the 25th he communicates his “abandonment” to his superiors. He says that he has lived in fear of retaliation ever since and that he has already received threats. “Just look at me from a distance, please,” he asked Expresso.
Hamilton Cruz applied for castings and admission tests for the staff of the new channel of Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA), a 24-hour news channel, in June 2022. “I went through the most varied tests, in some of which I and the other candidates turned to partisan thinking for the benefit of the ruling party,” the journalist told Expresso. He also said that he participated in exercises that simulated direct, during which journalists would be instructed so that they knew how to communicate for the benefit of the MPLA, the party in power since 1975 and that has just won the last elections. If they do not follow the instructions, Cruz says that they would be putting themselves “in a position that would not play in favor” of the candidates, which means that the journalists would not be part of the channel’s staff.
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Source: Observadora
