Luanda, Angola: Angola’s press union slammed a new law passed on Friday as intimidation for requiring certain media houses to broadcast live all official speeches by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

‘This measure has a political goal and exists to intimidate the press,’ Teixeira Candido, secretary-general of the Angolan Journalists Union, told AFP.

‘Every editor-in-chief must be able to determine their own editorial policy and shouldn’t be constrained by the law.’

According to the union, the law will force broadcast media houses—both public and private—to run every one of Dos Santos’s official speeches live.

The law also requires new media to have at least 300 million kwanza (1.5 million euros) in capital in order to be licensed, said Candido.

The controversial legislation was pushed through by lawmakers from Dos Santos’s ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which holds a comfortable majority in parliament.

The vote comes less than a week ahead of the party’s congress, where Dos Santos is expected to be confirmed as the MPLA candidate for the presidential election next year.

Dos Santos has maintained an iron-fisted grip on power since 1979.

Earlier this year the 73-year-old said he would stand down in 2018, but there was scepticism over whether he would do so after similar pledges in the past.