• ALERT Date: April 3, 2008 Person/institutions: The Post newspaper/Fred M’membe Violation: Victory On April 3, Magistrate Edward Musona dismissed an appeal by the lawyer of former Zambia Air Force (ZAF) Commander Lieutenant General Sande Kayumba attempting to bar The Post newspaper from commenting on the corruption charges against Kayumba. Kayumba is on trial on charges of abuse of office and corruption. He requested the Magistrate to caution The Post editor Fred M’membe to desist from commenting on his trail. Magistrate Musona, however, dismissed the appeal stating that it was baseless and the comments by M’membe did not amount to contempt of court because the comments were based on what two former Zambian presidents had said in stories published by The Post and not the case that was before the court. He said as evidenced from what The Post defence lawyers submitted before him, the editorial written by M’membe did not in any way have connections with the case that was before him of the accused who was being tried along with former chief logistics Brigadier General Andrew Nyirongo and Lusaka businessman Amon Sibanda. Kayumba’s lawyer argued that the editorial by M’membe subjected his client to two separate trials, one by The Post that had tried and convicted him and one before Magistrate Musona. • ALERT Date: April 17, 2008 Person/institutions: Kaiko Namusa Violation: Censored/harassed On April 17, senior reporter Kaiko Namusa from the state-owned newspaper, Times of Zambia, was assaulted and detained for over an hour by the Chipata Central Police, in the Eastern province of Zambia, for taking pictures of police officers who were manhandling a cyclist for allegedly breaking traffic rules. Namusa, who was on an assignment with Programme Against Malnutrition (PAM). said the police officers jumped on him when they noticed that he was taking photographs of them as they were beating up a cyclist. The police officers grabbed his camera after beating him and demanded that the photos be deleted. He explained that when he demanded for his camera, the officers got annoyed and sought permission from their superiors to have him locked up. One of their supervisors agreed that he be locked up “for conduct likely to cause a breach of peace”. Namusa was only released when one of the officers managed to delete the pictures from the camera. Police spokesperson Bonnie Kapeso condemned the beating of the reporter saying police officers should respect the work of the media. Kapeso wondered how a journalist with just a pen and a notebook could pose a danger to the peace of the police officers. Meanwhile, MISA Zambia condemned the act and has called on the Police Inspector General to address the issue because the number of officers and other law enforcers beating and harassing journalists as they carried out their duties was on the rise. • ALERT Date: August 29, 2008 Person/institutions: Zambia Daily Mail journalists Violation: Threatened Former Zambian Ambassador to Libya, Mbita Chitala, on August 29 threatened journalists working for the state-owned newspaper Zambia Daily Mail that they risk losing their jobs if they did not publish his articles. In an interview with MISA Zambia, Nigel Mulenga, who is acting deputy editor of the newspaper concerned and also Zambia Union of Journalists secretary general, said that Chitala approached him and four of his colleagues outside the office premises demanding an explanation why his articles were not being published in the newspaper. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -120- Media Institute of Southern Africa