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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
Prison. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge and the trial has been set for
July 9, 2002. Furthermore, according to reports Chilekwa, Banda, Lweendo
and Chirwa had also suffered physical assault and verbal abuse during the interrogation
sessions which preceded their arrest.
MISA is strongly opposed to the use of criminal defamation legislation and
urges your government to scrap this oppressing legislation from the statute books.
Currently the Media Legal Reform Committee, of which the Zambia Independent
Media Association (the Zambia chapter of the Media Institute of Southern
Africa) is a partner, regards it as a priority to advocate for the repeal of the
criminal libel law (section 69 of the Penal Code).
MISA holds the opinion that defamation should be dealt with as a civil matter
and that those who feel that they have been aggrieved should resort to civil
courts where the accusations may be substantiated or otherwise, rather than
order the police to arrest journalists and in so doing criminalise their work.
Criminalising free expression has been the cause of severe punishments administered
by a number of southern African governments. This has the serious effect
of intimidating people who may genuinely have information of public concern
regarding the activities of those in the leadership.
We, therefore, call upon you, Mr President, to ask the Director of Public Prosecution
to drop the charges against the journalists as you did in the case of Fred
M’membe in February this year when the “Post” newspaper’s editor was charged
under the same piece of legislation. MISA believes that journalists should carry
out their duties of informing the nation on issues of public interest without
direct interference from the Executive or the police.
Furthermore, we urge you, Your Excellency, to uphold Zambia’s international
and national obligations on press freedom and freedom of expression. We remind
you, Your Excellency, that the media plays an essential role within a democracy
and that attempts to limit their ability to report is in breach of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which, under Article 19, everyone
has the right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any
media and regardless of frontiers”.
Yours sincerely
Luckson Chipare, Regional Director
SWAZILAND
2002
Press Statement
January 18, 2002
TOPIC: Deteriorating Press Freedom situation in Zimbabwe
300 So This Is Democracy?