Angolan paper lives again

Angolense is seen as one of Angola's better papers

By Lara Pawson in Luanda

The fight for a free press in Angola benefited this weekend from the reopening of Angolense, an independent weekly journal.

Angolense's offices were closed five months ago when its financiers backed out, and two of its senior journalists were accused of defaming senior government officials.

The journal is nevertheless widely seen as being in favour of the MPLA regime, and its return to the streets has had little publicity in Luanda.

Americo Goncalves, director-general of Angolense, is clearly delighted that he and his staff have managed to reopen the journal after an absence of five months.

However, having lost the support of the journal's two main financiers, Mr Goncalves says the newspaper faces a possible crisis.

"We need paper, because we use high quality paper that you can't buy in Luanda," he says.

High standards

According to many of its readers, Angolense is a cut above the other four independent newspapers on sale in Luanda.

Aside from the paper, readers say Angolense has the highest standard of writing and better quality photographs.

A common complaint in Luanda is that the standard of writing in the private press is poor.

Sometimes, journalists write such long sentences, it is easy for the reader to become confused, if not breathless.

Another problem is the low literacy rate here - many Angolans are illiterate or semi-illiterate and cannot cope with the diverse vocabulary in the private press.

A Western diplomat says there are too many newspapers on sale in Angola and he can't be bothered to wade through all of them, so he opts for just one - Agora.

However, if there is an abundance of private newspapers here, Angolense's return should still be welcomed.

Increased competition among the private press should see the overall standard of reporting and writing go up.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely to see the prices drop. When Angolense closed in March, it cost six kwanzas ($0.50) - today, it sells for 10.