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Media Reform – 1998

Although Angola’s constitution guaranteed freedom of expression and the press, the government violated these laws in practice. In February, the Luanda-based independent weekly Agora was set on fire and burned by arsonists. Simao Roberto, a reporter for Jornal de Angola, was shot and killed on 5 June 1998. The Committee to Protect Journalists considered Angola “one of the most dangerous for journalists, and one where those who use violence to silence the press do so with impunity.”¹

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program coded the conflict between the Angolan government and UNITA as reaching the threshold of “war” in 1998 with over 1000 total deaths in the year. Coding for this case stops December 31, 1998.

1. “Attacks on the Press 1998: Angola,” Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).