Zambia / Africa

February 15, 2006 Original Alert: November 9, 2005 Fred M’membe, The Post HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION The Zambian state declined to prosecute award-winning journalist M’membe for criticizing President Levy Mwanawasa. M’membe, editor of Zambia’s leading daily The Post, was charged with insulting the president in November 2005. He was released on bail after six hours in…

New York, November 9, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today voiced outrage at the criminal defamation charge brought against award-winning journalist Fred M’membe for criticizing Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. M’membe, editor of Zambia’s leading daily The Post, was charged and released on bail after six hours in policy custody. He is due in court tomorrow,…

JULY 18, 2005 Posted: August 9, 2005 Community and religious broadcasters THREATENED An Information Ministry official threatened to shutter community and religious radio and television stations broadcasting “political” news or programs, according to local sources.

JUNE 29, 2005 Posted: July 22, 2005 Fred M’membe, The Post HARASSED Police questioned M’membe, editor-in-chief of Zambia’s leading daily The Post, and threatened to charge him with defaming the president in editorial commentaries published by the newspaper. According to local sources, The Post had published a recent series of editorials accusing President Levy Mwanawasa…

New York, June 27, 2005—Police in Zambia have threatened to charge radio host and commentator Anthony Mukwita with sedition after a June 10 broadcast on privately owned Radio Phoenix in which he read an anonymous fax criticizing the government. The fax, signed “Annoyed Zambians,” criticized President Levy Mwanawasa’s administration for allegedly failing to crack down…

JUNE 22, 2005 Posted: June 30, 2005 Anthony Mukwita, Radio Phoenix HARASSED Police in Zambia threatened to charge radio host and commentator Anthony Mukwita with sedition after a June 10 broadcast on privately owned Radio Phoenix in which he read an anonymous fax criticizing the government.

JUNE 15, 2005 Posted: June 24, 2005 The Post CENSORED Supporters of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) attacked and harassed vendors working for the independent daily The Post, Zambia’s leading newspaper. The assailants also seized copies of the paper.

Although the Kenya-based East African Standard, one of Africa’s oldest continuously published newspapers, marked its 100th anniversary in November, journalism remains a difficult profession on the continent, with adverse government policies and multifaceted economic woes still undermining the full development of African media.

Hopes were high in July that Ivory Coast’s political crisis would end after a judge in the capital, Abidjan, confirmed that former prime minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the leader of the opposition Rally for Republicans (RDR), is an Ivory Coast citizen.

President Levy Mwanawasa was inaugurated on January 2 amid opposition charges of fraudulent elections and editorial comments in the independent press that the new head of state was the “puppet” of his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba. The election controversy, power struggles, and financial scandals in the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) dominated headlines in 2002.