• ALERT Date: October 31, 2008 Person/institutions: Julius Sakala Violation: Harassed Julius Sakala, the news editor of Phoenix radio station, was harassed and manhandled by the police on October 31 as he tried to access the Mulungushi International Conference, the election management centre for the just-ended Zambia presidential by-election. Sanday Chongo, a reporter with the same radio station, told MISA Zambia that police officers denied Sakala entry into the premises even when he had all the necessary accreditation. Chongo said that the police officers, who could not justify their actions, later allowed Sakala entry after they heard him filing a radio programme by phone. • ALERT Date: November 1, 2008 Person/institutions: Media Violation: Censored On November 1, Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Mike Mulongoti advised all radio stations to desist from allowing live interviews to people wishing to comment on the presidential by-election results while the results were still trickling into the elections management centre in Lusaka. According to a press statement obtained by MISA Zambia dated November 1, Mulongoti said government was concerned that some people had been making inflammatory statements protesting against the results that were being released from various constituencies in Zambia. He said the inflammatory statements could incite some members of the general public to engage in violence. • ALERT Date: November 12, 2008 Person/institutions: Frank Bwalya Violation: Arrested/Charged On November 12, Police arrested the station manager of the Catholic-owned Radio Icengelo in Kitwe, Father Frank Bwalya, in connection with allegedly inciting people during a live post-election radio programme that has been running on the station for two weeks. Ndola based Mission Press Director Father Miha Dravensk called MISA Zambia on the evening of November 12 to report the incident. Bwalya was picked up after he finished presenting the programme by the plain clothes police officers and taken to Kitwe Police station where he was interrogated and briefly detained before he was taken to an unknown destination where he was detained overnight. • ALERT Date: November 13, 2008 Person/institutions: Media Violation: Threatened/Legislation On November 13, Members of Parliament (MP) called for the regulation of media houses through the use of statutory instruments as opposed to self regulation because of the alleged biased coverage of the media in the just ended presidential by-election. According to a report in the Zambia Daily Mail of November 15 and the live broadcast of Parliament radio which MISA Zambia monitored, the MPs alleged that there was a need for media organisations to be regulated by statutory instruments in order to stop journalists from publishing information that could incite violence. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -124- Media Institute of Southern Africa