(MISA/IFEX) – On Thursday 22 March 2001, President Bakili Muluzi ordered police to drop charges against three journalists accused of publishing “false news” in February, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported on Friday 23 March. The report, which quoted the president’s aide, Willie Zingani, said the three reporters faced criminal charges of publishing “false […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On Thursday 22 March 2001, President Bakili Muluzi ordered police to drop charges against three journalists accused of publishing “false news” in February, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported on Friday 23 March. The report, which quoted the president’s aide, Willie Zingani, said the three reporters faced criminal charges of publishing “false information likely to cause public alarm” after the opposition newspaper “Daily Times” ran two stories alleging that serial murders had resurfaced in Chiradzulu district, fifteen kilometres from Blantyre. Zingani quoted Muluzi as saying he wanted journalists to be professional and not “sensationalise stories.”
Editor-in-chief of the “Daily Times” Mike Kamwendo and reporters Mabvuto Banda and Peter Makossah were arrested last month for publishing stories about the killings. According to the report, eight men have been brutally murdered since January, with their eyes gouged out, and ears and genitals cut off. The three journalists insist that the articles are true and based on investigations into the murders. In 2000, the newspaper uncovered serial murders, which led police to arrest two suspects who were found guilty and sentenced to death by a high court.
