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In a report published on the eve of a MISA-Mozambique general meeting, Vieira Mario noted that there had been advances in terms of pluralism and diversity in the media, PANA reports, quoting the country's news agency, AIM.
There are now over 60 radio and television stations in the country, in the public, private and community sectors, and over 25 regular publications.
Over 900 people work on the editorial side of the media, ranging from volunteer producers in local community radios, to professional journalists on the national media.
However, this growth is overshadowed by an increasing trend by notable figures in Mozambican politics and in the judiciary to resort to the courts when the media publish something they find offensive.
The most serious judicial harassment, Mario recalled, came in December 2006, when equipment was seized from the private media company SOICO, putting at risk the continued operations of its television station, STV, and its other initiatives.
A judge in the Maputo city court ordered the seizure because of a debt owed to someone who had never worked at SOICO.
The attack on SOICO, Mario said, was "disproportionate and unjustified".
But rather than distancing themselves from the threatening behaviour of their colleague, Mozambican judges stood in solidarity with him and the Mozambican Association of Judges (a body never heard of before) held a press conference in January 2007 in his defence.
In the two years that he has been at the helm of MISA-Mozambique, Mario noted, "more than ten journalists, editors and media directors have been summoned by institutions of the administration of justice for interrogations, or to stand trial for libel or defamation."
Exorbitant sums have been claimed in damages, Mario added, which "clearly express a desire for vengeance against press freedom, rather than any feelings of justice. The purpose is clearly to frighten journalists and provoke the bankruptcy of the companies that employ them."
The press also ran into serious problems from the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.
In 2007, the assembly unanimously passed a new law on the organisation of the courts. Most of the laws are uncontroversial - but one article banned cameras and microphones from trials.
In the past, the decision on allowing or prohibiting the broadcasting of trials had been left up to individual judges.
Now they have been stripped of that discretion, so that there could be no repeat of the live broadcast, from beginning to end, of the trial in 2002-03, of the six men who murdered the country's top investigative reporter, Carlos Cardoso.
The assembly's decision to slam courtroom doors on the press came despite an ear lier ruling by the Supreme Court that live broadcasts of criminal trials "in cas e s of evident public interest, is justified by the right of citizens to informati o n."
Mario noted that the assembly was continuing to shut the public out of some of i ts own sessions.
Throughout the past two years, the assembly met in closed sessions whenever disc ussing reports from its petitions commission, the parliamentary body that deals m ost closely with citizens' demands for justice.
As with the ban on broadcasting trials, this was done in the name of citizens' " right to honour."
Meanwhile, the assembly has done nothing to make an equally constitutional right , the right to information, a reality.
After lengthy public debates, MISA-Mozambique submitted to the assembly a draft bill on freedom of information, which sought to guarantee access to official sources of information in 2005 and since then there has been "sepulchral silence" from the assembly, remarked Mario.
The constitution states that the exercise of freedom of information shall be "regulated by law" - but the assembly is clearly in no hurry to pass such a law.
There is a constitutionally established watchdog, the Supreme Mass Media Council (CSCS), saddled with the task of defending the independence of the media and the freedom of the press.
However, when the media was faced with judicial attacks, the CSCS did not stand up for press freedom.
Maria noted that it has done the opposite, and has actually encouraged the courts to intervene in the media, adding that the CSCS, operates as if it were "a section of the Public Prosecutor's Office."
On the other hand, Mario noted President Armando Guebuza has always been willing to speak with MISA and the press in general, and has also made a point of taking on presidential visits, inside and outside the country, reporters from the private as well as the public media.
Journalists' organisations have also been able to work fruitfully with the gover nment press office (GABINFO), which is attached to the Prime Minister's office.
The best example of this was cooperation between MISA, other journalists' organisations and GABINFO in producing the draft of new press law.
Although much of the draft is welcome, and in line with the press freedom clauses of the 2004 constitution, there was initially a dangerous demand for compulsor y licensing of journalists.
After this was the subject of some controversy in 2006, a "consensual position" has been found, according to Mario, in which holding a professional licence will become a right of journalists and not an obligation.
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