It is unacceptable that political hooligans have continued to attack innocent journalists for merely doing their work.
Political leaders must go out of their way to impress upon their cadres that journalists are not their enemies.
They merely help to transmit information between those in government and the opposition parties.
The reported attacks on two radio stations by suspected United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres in Serenje and Petauke must be condemned in the strongest terms.
The nation can longer accept the usual response from the political leadership that “the perpetrators are not our members.
They ought to take responsibility for the illegal acts carried out by their members and ensure that the ringleaders are identified and handed over to the police.
In Serenje, the cadres descended on Serenje Radio where they harassed and attacked three members of staff at Serenje Police Station while in Petauke, the cadres attacked and beat up Chimwemwe Charles Banda, a journalist at Radio Explorer.
Serenje Radio management has reported that the UPND cadres attacked media personnel who were following a story on the stand-off between the Socialist Party and the governing party.
“The media personnel were following up a story on the standoff between the Socialist Party and the ruling UPND.
This was on allegations that the Socialist Party shot a UPND member during campaigns in the run up to the April 20, 2023 Muchinda Ward By-election in Serenje,” Serenje Radio management said in a statement.
We find it strange that the cadres misbehaved at the police station where the journalists were filming their protest.
Why did the police not make any arrests?
The Zambia Police Service, for all their claims to be a professional unit failed lamentably to ensure law and order by turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of the UPND cadres.
It appears to be the modus operandi of the police not to take action when the transgressors claim to be acting on behalf of the ruling party.
In Petauke, the UPND cadres led by the party’s information and publicity secretary only identified as Mwika and commonly known as Mandevu descended on journalist Chimwemwe Banda for playing music for Petauke Member of Parliament Emmanuel Jay Banda.
The unruly cadres are reported to have initially called the journalist to follow them to some unknown place so that he could record a story they claimed to have.
But after the journalist refused to follow them, they instead decided to raid Radio Explorer where they attacked him and ordered him to stop playing music for the Petauke MP.
Apparently, the radio station was playing a song on a radio programme sponsored by the Petauke Member of Parliament.
This is an affront on the operations of the media which the party must not defend.
We can only imagine what the cadres could have done to the journalist if he had gone where they had called him.
As we have noted, the media is not an enemy of the politicians, particularly the party in power and must be allowed to operate without any outside interference as expected in a functional democracy.
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