journalists to stop taking photos. The journalists were at the airport to cover the departure of President Guelleh from Zambia’s tourist capital, Livingstone, to Lusaka. The security personnel also tried to grab Mulenga’s camera, but he was able to retain it by assuring them that he would delete the photographs. He did not do so, however, and instead sent them to the Times of Zambia, which did not publish them. Mulenga said that, when the security personnel asked why he was taking pictures, he told them, “Look, I’m doing my job, just like you”, and that he was doing his best to capture the events. In the end, Mulenga was able to reason with the security. • ALERT Date: June 25, 2007 Persons: Petauke Explorers Violation: Threatened On May 17 2007, Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Mike Mlongoti threatened to revoke an operating license for Petauke Explorers, a local commercial radio station in Petauke district in the eastern province of Zambia, for featuring the president of one of the leading political parties in an on-air paid-for interview. Mlongoti issued the threats after the station featured Michael Sata, a vocal president of the opposition Patriotic Front (PF), which gave the ruling Movement for Multi party Democracy (MMD) tight competition in the September 28 2006 tripartite elections. Various political parties were in Zambia’s Eastern province campaigning for the Kapoche parliamentary seat that fell vacant following the nullification of an earlier victory by an MMD candidate, Nicholas Banda, by the Lusaka High court due to malpractices during the September 2006 tripartite elections. The by-election took place on June 5, 2007. Sata had been featured on the station on May 14 from 9h00 to 10h00 (local time). Petauke Explorers radio station manager, Victor Msadabwe, told MISA Zambia in an email that his station had also featured the United National Independent Party (UNIP) and had extended the same offer to the ruling MMD but they did not respond to the invitation. • ALERT Date: March 30, 2007 Persons: Radio Mano Violation: Bombed (Raided) On March 30 2007, officers from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) searched the office of Radio Mano, a community radio station in Zambia’s Northern Province in Kasama. Station Manager David Chanda said the ACC officers produced a search warrant, which did not state exactly what they were looking for. He said they described the search as a “classified investigation”. Chanda said that the ACC officers confined the Radio Mano staff to one room and told them not to leave the premises until the officers were through with the search, which lasted four hours. The station did not go off air, but staff did not report for work the next day for fear of being confined again by the ACC, said Chanda. However, the workers have since returned and normal operations of the station have continued. Chanda said the officers took the radio station’s chequebook, some documents and files, some of which did not belong to the station. He added that the ACC also took his personal diary from his office. So This Is Democracy? 2007 -121- Media Institute of Southern Africa