08 November 2018
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is deeply disturbed to hear of the worrying detention of South African journalist, Angela Quintal and her colleague, Muthoki Mumo.
Quintal, a former senior executive of SANEF and former editor of the Mail and Guardian and now Africa Programme Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was taken in for questioning and detained in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, together with her colleague Muthoki Mumo, who is Sub-Saharan Africa representative for the CPJ.
After approximately five hours, Quintal and Mumo were then returned to their Dar es Salaam hotel, at around 3am – but without their passports. Details and reasons for the detention are still not clear.
Also, it is unclear whether Tanzanian authorities have taken Quintal’s phone. A number of her social media profiles have been deactivated.
Sanef calls on the Tanzanian authorities to return their passports as a matter of urgency and allow them to leave the country of their own free will.
Sanef also welcomes the speedy probe into the matter by the Department of International Relations (DIRCO) and calls on DIRCO to exert pressure on their Tanzanian counterparts.
We also welcome the fact that the South African High Commissioner in Tanzania will be meeting with Tanzanian authorities this morning to assess the situation.
SANEF believes these are very worrying developments. We need to urgently find out the reasons behind this detention. We believe the arbitrary detention of journalists is a direct and dangerous threat to media freedom and access to information.
For more information please contact:
Mahlatse Mahlase – SANEF Chairperson
083 399 2852
Mary Papayya – SANEF Media Freedom Chair
082 379 4957
Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director
082 926 6404