The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) called on government to quickly resolve the worrying detention of South African journalist, Angela Quintal and her colleague, Muthoki Mumo on Wednesday evening.
Quintal, a 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 a sub-Saharan Africa representative for the CPJ.
After about 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 chairperson Mahlatse Mahlase said: “Sanef welcomes the speedy probe into the matter by the Department of International Relations (DIRCO). We welcome the fact that the South African High Commissioner in Tanzania will be meeting with Tanzanian authorities this morning to assess the situation."
“We believe these are very worrying developments.” Mahlase said there was a need to urgently find out the reasons behind this detention.
“Further, the journalists’ passports and phones need to be immediately returned. We believe the arbitrary detention of journalists is a direct and dangerous threat to media freedom and access to information.” — DDR..