Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Provincial Governor Oppar Muchinguri threw out private media journalists from a land resettlement meeting on Thursday 19 July 2001, on the grounds that government officials were about to discuss sensitive issues. According to reports in the “Daily News”, journalists Patrick Mwale of the “Daily News” and Muchaneta Manyengavana of the “Financial […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Mercedes Sayagues, the foreign correspondent of the South African “Mail & Guardian” who was deported from Zimbabwe on 18 February 2001, has filed a legal challenge with the High Court of Zimbabwe, arguing that her deportation by the Zimbabwean government was illegal, “The Daily News” reported on 17 July. The newspaper reports that […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 13 July 2001, police in Mpika, in the Northern Province of Zambia, dropped a criminal libel charge they had laid on Ernest Mwape, a freelance journalist, over a story he had written for the privately owned “Post” newspaper on 6 June. In the story, which was headlined “Mpika DA castigates cops over […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On Monday 9 July 2001, the virulent legal battle between the “Botswana Guardian” and “Midweek Sun” and the Botswana government began with the papers’ attorneys scoring preliminary goals. Advocate Brian Spilg for the media house convinced Justice Isaac Lesetedi that the matter was urgent after a lengthy argument on questions posed by the […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On Thursday 12 July 2001, government officials prohibited BBC correspondent in Angola Justin Pearce and Rafael Marques, a local freelance journalist and human rights activist, from reporting on the resettlement camp for Boavista residents. Dona Dulce, a Ministry of Social Reinsertion officer, who was overseeing the camp, told the reporters that she had […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 11 July 2001, Angolan journalist Gilberto Neto appeared for a second day of interrogation, at the Department of Selective Crimes of the National Direction of Criminal Investigation (DNIC). Neto, a reporter for the independent weekly newspaper “Folha 8” was arrested on 7 July, along with foreign researcher Philippe Lebillon, after checking-in at […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The famous Angolan Catholic broadcaster, Rádio Ecclésia, shut down its transmission, allegedly in reaction to growing pressure which had labelled it as a new version of VORGAN, the UNITA radio station. Rádio Ecclésia has suspended its news services for an undetermined period of time allegedly as a sign of protest against a defamation […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Freelance journalist Ernest Mwape, a correspondent for the privately owned “Post” newspaper, who is based in Mpika, the Northern Province of Zambia, was arrested and charged with criminal libel on 9 July 2001. He was arrested because of a story he allegedly wrote that was published in the “Post” newspaper on 6 June. […]