(MISA/IFEX) – On 14 September 2000, journalist Prince Jamali was arrested along with three other Montfort Press employees, in the Balaka district, in connection with two missing laptop computers, a printer and music compact discs at the media house. The four have been charged with theft and released on bail. Jamali, who works for the […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 14 September 2000, journalist Prince Jamali was arrested along with three other Montfort Press employees, in the Balaka district, in connection with two missing laptop computers, a printer and music compact discs at the media house. The four have been charged with theft and released on bail.
Jamali, who works for the quarterly “Lamp” and “Together” magazines, published by the Catholic Montfort Missionaries, claims that he was implicated in the incident because of a story he had written earlier about alleged police brutality. In the article, Jamali documented incidents of torture that had allegedly been perpetrated by the Malawi
Police Service since a reform programme started two years ago.
Jamali told MISA correspondent Rafael Tenthani: “After publishing that story in the ‘Lamp’ I was persistently harrassed and threatened by police officers in town and through telephone calls.
“I wasn’t surprised when they connected me to the missing things because I knew they were looking for a reason to get on me,” he said.
However, a spokesperson for the police in Balaka told the Malawi News Agency that they were not aware that the reporter was being threatened or sought.
When MISA-Malawi contacted Montfort Missionaries, the magazines’ editor-in-chief, Fr. Piegiorgio Gamba, said it would be too early for him to comment. Gamba said Jamali and his colleagues, who were released on bail after spending twenty-four hours in police custody, were back at work. The others who were charged were Davie Sapuwa, Ernest Malija and Felister Makwinja.
The “Lamp” is a quarterly magazine that champions human rights and democracy issues, while “Together” is a quarterly youth magazine.
