Thu, 04 May 2017 11:16:33 +0000
By Augustin Phiri
Journalists in Zambia yesterday observed World Press Freedom Day amid continued harassment mainly from political party cadres who seem to enjoy free publicity derived from the scourge.
You see, headlines such as “Cadres punch reporter”, “Reporter loses camera in cadre scuffle’ and “Cadres pull down Brazilian hair off female reporter”, are heroic to a party cadre.
To change the situation, reporters need to take Kung Fu lessons in order to prepare themselves for future eventualities because crying for protection like babies is not working at all.
In addition, reporters should carry a perfume-like can (tin) fully packed with hot chili for spraying straight into the eyes of a cheeky cadre and then finish him off with ‘hi ha hi ha’ kicks into the mouth, groin, belly button and buttocks.
This prescription would change the good publicity these senseless political functionaries get in the media whenever they beat up a reporter.
“Cadre meets his waterloo”, “Female reporter floors beefy cadre in Fung Fu style” and “Cadre loses front teeth in brawl with reporter” would be the new headlines.
Certainly, this is not the type of publicity these rogues would enjoy and my bet is that their habit of pestering reporters would cease for good.
This year’s World Press Freedom Day which was observed on May 3 under the theme of ‘Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies’ aimed at raising awareness on the need to protect the journalism profession and its practitioners.
For Africa, yesterday’s event coincided with the 26th anniversary of the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration of press freedom principles on the continent.
During the commemoration, journalists globally remembered their colleagues who have in one way or another suffered various forms of victimization including deaths in some cases.
Likewise, this write up is also dedicated to the many journalists who have been persecuted, prosecuted, killed, maimed, injured, imprisoned, slapped and insulted during their tours of duty.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), six journalists in Africa were killed last year, all of them locals and 41 others were thrown into prison cells across sub-Sahara.
In 2015, some 14 journalists were killed, and 34 were jailed in Africa.
Worldwide, 48 journalists were killed in 2016 many of them in the conflict zones of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan, 90 percent of them were local journalists.
Globally, it is estimated that 259 journalists were jailed, the highest figure CPJ has ever documented since it started keeping records in 1990.
In Africa, all the journalists killed were also locals, and few of their killers have been arrested or prosecuted.
Somalia was ranked the deadliest nation for journalists in Africa with three journalists killed in the troubled coastal nation that has not had a stable central government for more than two decades and where rival armed groups battle for influence, territory and resources.
Of the 41 jailed journalists, 33 were in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the two nations whose governments have been accused of becoming increasingly intolerant to the press
Despite Zambia conspicuously missing from this list, it does not been that since independence in 1964, no journalist has ever been killed in this former British protectorate because my brief research proves otherwise.
Anthony Joyce, an Australian television correspondent, was shot in the head while sitting in a police car shortly after being arrested at a road bridge in Kafue on November 22, 1979.
Joyce and camera operator, Derek Mckendry from New Zealand had been taking photographs of the bridge blown up by Rhodesian government troops after a fierce battle with Zambian soldiers three days earlier.
Joyce was admitted to hospital and died two months later while Mckendry was held on a 28-day detention order. This is the only known death of a reporter that has occurred on Zambian soil.
Francois Cros, regional director for Agence France Presse (AFP) was arrested in Lusaka on 17 October 1980 and detained until 13 November the same year for unexplained reasons.
New Zealand freelance journalist, Chris Bennet, was arrested in Kabompo in North-Western Province on 19 December 1982 and detained for four hours on charges of spying and for a further week on a charge of violating Zambian currency regulations. Both charges were later dropped and Bennet was released.
Maurice Hommel, editor of unspecified media organisation, was detained and declared an illegal immigrant and deported in October 1983.
It must be noted that these were parachute foreign journalists who ‘dropped’ in for one-off assignments to cover incidents of hostility between Zambia and neighbouring colonialists in Angola, Mozambique, South-West Africa (Namibia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Apartheid South Africa.
It could be argued that in the midst of political enmity at the time, claiming to be a journalist was the only way out for a foreign spy captured by Zambian security agents.
However, Zambians pen-pushers too shared harassment. Zambia Daily Mail News Editor, Shadrack Soko, was arrested at Lusaka International Airport on October 28, 1983 as he was about to board a plane to Swaziland on holiday.
Police found President Kaunda’s speeches in his luggage.
Police also confiscated the passport belonging to Lee Musonda, Zambia Daily Mail syndication editor in 1984. Musonda was questioned at police headquarters in Lusaka but was not detained.
Musonda (late) later told the Human Rights Commission probing abuses of individual liberties committed by the former UNIP government that he was a victim of harassment for his work as a journalist which was misconstrued as being “subversive “.
Zambian publisher, Joseph Chitalu, was arrested in March 1986 and released in November 1989 without trial while John Edlin, the Harare-based correspondent for the American Associated Press (AP) was detained and declared a prohibited immigrant.
He spent five years in detention before being deported on Christmas eve in 1986.
In March 1981, in an incident coined as “Timesgate” which occurred in Kitwe, the then Zambia’s number two strongman, Humphrey Mulembe (late), then Secretary-General of UNIP, sent his aides at night to awaken Times Chief Reporter, Arnold Kapelembi from his house.
Kapelembi (late) was made to climb a wall into the telex room of the office to get a copy of a story on Mulemba’s meeting he had addressed earlier in the day. Together with the copy of the story, Kapelembi was taken back to where Mr Mulemba was lodging.
After Mr Mulemba satisfied himself that there was nothing wrong with the story, Kapelembi was allowed to go free.
The year 1988 will forever be a memorable year in my life as a journalist. It was during this year, that the former UNIP government attempted to ruin my career. On 5 February, as a reporter on a beat in Mufulira near the Mokombo border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I came across a story about the death of a five-month old baby.
At this time, shortages of food were at a peak and long and uncontrollable queues for food were common features at any shop selling mealie meal. In many instances stampedes broke out frequently.
It was in one of such confusion that the baby dropped from the back of its mother and was trampled by the throng.
The story appeared in the Times the following day and the ZNBC aired the story on radio and television news bulletins. The following morning, I was arrested and charged with “publishing false news with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public.”
According to the UNIP government, I had defamed Zambia through the story especially that the 1986 food riots were still fresh in the minds of Zambians.
This was deemed to be a “test case” for journalists in Zambia and my colleagues teamed up under the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) and the Commonwealth Press Union – Zambia Section and hired for me a prominent legal mind – Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, who was later to become the third president of the Republic of Zambia.
My colleagues, to whom I remain indebted, had rejected a government-appointed lawyer from the department of legal aid of the Ministry of Legal Affairs to represent me on the grounds that the same persecutor cannot at the same time be a legal counsel.
I was acquitted nine months later after being found with no case to answer.
In acquitting me, lady magistrate, Ms Mushoba Mulikita asked the prosecution: Did any resident of Mufulira run away to other town with fear after reading this story?
In November 1981, party cadres known at the time as vigilantes pounced and confiscated a notebook in which Times of Zambia reporter, Josias Mbuzi was taking notes at a UNIP meeting.
And who can forget former Post News Editor, Chanda Kabwela’s case of few years ago; she too faced the same charge of ‘Publishing false news with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public”.
This was over photographs of a woman giving birth in the car park at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) during a nurses’ strike for improved salaries and conditions of service.
Ms Kabwela did not actually publish the controversial photographs, but merely sent copies to a number of prominent people and women’s rights groups, along with a letter calling for the strike to be brought to an end.
Intimidation of journalists has also been at play. A couple of years ago, some ruling party former ministers stormed the newsroom at ZNBC and threatened to sack reporters they suspected to be sympathizers of the opposition.
With one of the ‘intruders’ having been appointed Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services soon afterwards, fear gripped the reporters at ZNBC even more. Ironically, this minister has since been sacked instead.
There are many cases of victimization of journalists in Zambia but for now, I can only cite these few.
Let us do something and let God help us curb the beating of reporters by political party cadres particularly.
Contact: kapenyatheobserver@yahoo.com
