(MISA/IFEX) – On 6 July 2000, the “Post”, Zambia’s leading independent daily newspaper, failed to appear on the streets for the second day running due to a critical failure of the newspaper’s ageing web-offset printing machine. The paper’s editor-in-chief, Fred M’membe, has since accused the state-owned “Zambia Daily Mail” printers of snubbing his request to […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 6 July 2000, the “Post”, Zambia’s leading independent daily newspaper, failed to appear on the streets for the second day running due to a critical failure of the newspaper’s ageing web-offset printing machine. The paper’s editor-in-chief, Fred M’membe, has since accused the state-owned “Zambia Daily Mail” printers of snubbing his request to print the paper.
M’membe told the Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA) that the disruption in production occurred when the main motor which drives the printer burnt out on 29 June, towards the end of that day’s print-run. As a result, the 30 June edition went on sale a day later, because it was printed at another printer using a slower sheet-fed machine. But the 5 and 6 July editions failed to appear altogether due to what M’membe termed “bureaucratic hurdles” at the “Zambia Daily Mail”, the only other company in Lusaka with a web-offset printer able to print the “Post”. There were no editions of the paper on 3 and 4 July because they were public holidays in Zambia.
M’membe told ZIMA that despite assurances from Minster of Information Newstead Zimba that he had given written directives to “Daily Mail” managing editor Godfrey Malama to print the newspaper on a “commercial basis”, this had come to nothing.
“Malama told us that the ‘owners of the machine’ had refused to sanction the printing, but he did not disclose who they were,” M’membe said. “The owners must be above the Minister of Information. We don’t know the person above the minister who issued contrary directives,” M’membe added.
However, Malama told ZIMA in a separate interview that the “Daily Mail” had spurned the requests from the “Post” because his company’s web-offset printer was equally rickety. “We have no capacity for additional commercial printing. We are hanging by a thread. If we took any commercial jobs, that would put extra strain on our machine,” he said. He also denied any knowledge of a letter from Zimba directing him to assist the “Post”.
