(MISA/IFEX) – At least four journalists have either been fired or suspended from the national broadcasting station since the failed 28 October 1997 coup in Zambia. On 31 October, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) management suspended announcer Loveday Haachiyumba for allegedly speaking approvingly of the coup by rebellious army officers. On 3 November, journalist Goretti […]
(MISA/IFEX) – At least four journalists have either been fired or
suspended from the national broadcasting station since the failed
28 October 1997 coup in Zambia. On 31 October, Zambia National
Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) management suspended announcer
Loveday Haachiyumba for allegedly speaking approvingly of the
coup by rebellious army officers. On 3 November, journalist
Goretti Mapulanga was dismissed from her job ostensibly for
carrying out a “vox pop” on the failed coup. Her husband,
Hopkings, who is a ZNBC regional manager, was also asked to leave
on the same day as Goretti. Earlier, senior broadcast journalists
Kenneth Maduma and Wellington Kalwisha were forced to retire.
ZNBC spokesman Lawson Chishimba confirmed both the suspensions
and dismissals in an interview with the Zambia Independent Media
Association (ZIMA), Misa’s chapter in Zambia. Chishimba said
Haachiyumba, a Tonga announcer for Radio 1, will remain suspended
because of the way he conducted himself during the short-lived
coup. Haachiyumba was one of three journalists who were at gun-
point forced to operate broadcast equipment for the coup plotters
on 28 October. He claims to have been hit with a gun butt and
ordered to speak approvingly of the coup on air or lose his life.
He says he was ordered not to scare the public. ZNBC management
has refused to accept his explanation.
The other announcers, Margaret Chigwedere and Evelyn Tembo, have
not been disciplined but have instead been feted by management
and state house, President Chiluba’s official office and
residence, for their “patriotism.”
Speaking about her fate, Goretti said the “vox pop” she conducted
in the aftermath of the coup was “nothing out of the ordinary” in
journalism. “I had no hidden agenda when conducting the
interviews on the attempted coup,” she said, adding, “I went to
interview government officials and even covered a government
solidarity march celebrating the crushing of the coup in
Solwezi,” said Goretti, who has served the ZNBC for over
seventeen years.
She does not believe her husband should be made to pay for her
mistakes either. Goretti suspects that the decision to fire her
and her husband may not have come from ZNBC management, as
director-general Duncan Mbazima personally delivered the letters.
Commenting on the delivery of the letters, Mbazima admitted the
decision was “beyond” him.
