On 17 January 2000, Rachiel Chiumya, a reporter working for the privately-owned Radio Phoenix, and Kangwa Mulenga, from the privately-owned “Monitor” newspaper, were roughed-up by police who were attempting to grab a recorder and note books from the two journalists. The incident happened while the journalists were reporting on a demonstration by women’s rights activists […]
On 17 January 2000, Rachiel Chiumya, a reporter working for the privately-owned Radio Phoenix, and Kangwa Mulenga, from the privately-owned “Monitor” newspaper, were roughed-up by police who were attempting to grab a recorder and note books from the two journalists. The incident happened while the journalists were reporting on a demonstration by women’s rights activists in Lusaka.
Chiumya and Mulenga were targeted by the police when they were seen interviewing some of the women protesters who were arrested for picketing outside police headquarters in Lusaka. The women were protesting against police inertia in an on-going child rape and murder investigation. Police demanded that Chiumya hand over her recorder and notebook, and that Mulenga give them his notebook.
“Police were leading the women away and roughing them up in the process. I was recording everything. One of them instructed the others to get the recorder. When I refused they roughed me up,” Chiumya told the Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA/MISA-Zambia).
In an ensuing tussle with police, as the journalists attempted to flee from arrest, Chiumya sustained some jabs to her body. In the midst of the confusion, she managed to give her recorder to Mulenga, who ran a little further before being cornered, violently slapped, and forced to hand over the recorder.
“The police were threatening to shoot me as I was running. When they cornered me, they slapped me and grabbed the recorder to remove the tape but I had hidden the tiny tape in my tie so they did not find it. I was then led away,” Mulenga told ZIMA.
The two journalists were saved from arrest by the intervention of police spokesperson Lemmy Kajoba and a human rights activist, Alfred Zulu. Kajoba confirmed to ZIMA the incident involving the journalists, but said they were merely caught-up in the arrest of the women. “It is not police policy to harass journalists. I actually saved the reporter from Radio Phoenix from being arrested and bundled into a police truck,” he said.
ZIMA chairman David Simpson condemned the police brutality against the two reporters. “ZIMA condemns the blatant attempt by the police to censor the reporter from Radio Phoenix by attempting to confiscate her recorder. Cases of police brutality against media personnel,
especially in the independent media, are on the upswing. Such heavy-handed tactics are reminiscent of dictatorial regimes. They can not be condoned in a country whose leaders profess to be democratic,” he said.
