African press and authoritarianism. The ethnic question in Mozambican media (2012-2022): a questão étnica no espaço político e na comunicação social de Moçambique (2012-2022)

• Autor(a) principal: Bussotti, Luca
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Ibero-Americanos
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/index.php/iberoamericana/article/view/44365
• topic: Agenda-denial; Etnicização do Estado; Liberdade de Imprensa; Imprensa pública e privada; Agenda-denial; Ethnicization of the State; Press Freedom; Public and Private Media.; Agenda Denial; Etnicización del Estado; Libertad de prensa; Prensa pública y privada.

The “ethnic question” has always been present in the internal debate of the two main Mozambican political parties; it has been one of the main causes of old as well as modern conflicts. Nevertheless, the press, especially the public one, avoided to approach this issue due to a discourse that the hegemonic party (FRELIMO) imposed to the country, privileging ideals like that of the national unity and the struggle against “tribalism”. Using as a theoretical reference point that of agenda-denial, this article seeks to rebuild the relationship between press and political power of a country considered as authoritarian like Mozambique. The study was carried out through a qualitative methodology, according to a discourse analysis and the editorial lines of those public as well as private media which established the “ethnic question” as one of their privileged issues to be covered, in the period here considered. It was evident that public media, despite pluralist constitutional principles, continues to de subjugated to an agenda-denial mechanism by the government, while private media tried to propose diferente themes, with a critical approach. Among these issues, it is possible to identify that regarding the ethnic question, in spite of threatens and physical violences that such approach implied.