(MISA/IFEX) – On 3 June 1998, the “Post” newspaper and its former editor for special projects, Masautso Phiri, who was facing criminal libel charges brought by former vice-president, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda, were discharged of the offence when Miyanda withdrew the case. **Updates IFEX alerts of 14 April, 19, 13 and 10 March, and 26, […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 3 June 1998, the “Post” newspaper and its former editor for
special projects, Masautso Phiri, who was facing criminal libel charges
brought by former
vice-president, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda, were discharged of the
offence when Miyanda withdrew the case.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 14 April, 19, 13 and 10 March, and 26, 12 and 11
February 1997**
The motion to withdraw the case was made by Miyanda’s lawyer, Willie
Mubanga, who told Lusaka Principal Resident Magistrate Gertrude Chawatama in
chambers that Miyanda had instead opted to pursue a civil libel action.
Miyanda sued the “Post” and Phiri for a column published in December 1996
entitled “Praising God Loudly”, which Miyanda said “criminally libeled” him,
exposed him to public ridicule and suggested that he was unfit to hold any
public office.
On 11 February 1997, Phiri was sentenced to three months in jail for
“contempt of court” by the Supreme Court over parts of the same article
which alleged that President Chiluba had bribed judges hearing a petition
against his candidature in the presidential elections of October 1996. Phiri
initially made a bid to appeal the conviction, but withdrew his
appeal when two of the three judges he had asked to withdraw from the case
refused to do so. On 3 March 1997, Phiri began serving his sentence and was
released from prison on 11 April 1997.
