Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

(MISA/IFEX) – Armed police surrounded printing presses where “Post” editor-in-chief Fred M’membe and three other journalists were working on a crisis edition following the 10 March 1999 detention of nearly all of the Zambian independent daily’s journalists. **Updates previous IFEX alerts of 10 March 1999** Police sealed off the paper’s printing press on Chandwe Musonda […]

(MISA/IFEX) – “Post” journalist Goodson Machona, who was holed up in his home since about 1 a.m. (local time) on 10 March 1999, when police surrounded it, has been arrested. The standoff between Machona and the police happened after the journalist refused to surrender himself to the police until he had spoken to his lawyers. […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Jailed reporter Fernando Quinova, who was held illegally by police in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, was released at the weekend, reports the Mozambican News Agency, AIM. **Updates IFEX alerts of 9 March, 8 March, 5 March, 3 February and 28 January 1999** Quoting the 9 March 1999 edition of the […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On the night of 9 March 1999, police in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, fanned out over the city to arrest journalists from the “Post” newspaper, apparently after an order was issued for them to arrest all “Post” journalists before dawn. The first reporter to be picked up was Bright Phiri at around 9 […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The Zambia High Court has squashed the expulsion of former Member of Parliament Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika from the National Assembly and awarded him damages for loss of emoluments and privileges. The court back dated the payment of damages to 1996 when he was expelled from the house. He had since lost his seat […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Journalist Fernando Quinova, who works for the publicly-owned Mass Communication Institute (ICS), has been re-arrested after escaping from jail where he had languished for twenty-three days without charge. **Updates IFEX alerts of 5 March, 3 February and 28 January 1999** Quinova was initially arrested in the town of Chiure in the northern Cabo […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 3 March 1999, Zambian police briefly detained three foreign journalists after residents of Lusaka’s Chilenje township apprehended them for filming in the area. Three other journalists were later also detained, this time by soldiers, while pursuing a story on a water crisis in the capital, Lusaka. Police confirmed that two Zimbabweans and […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On February 23 1999, journalist Caitlin Davies was acquitted on charges of contempt of court after being summoned to appear in court because of an article she had written about an on-going court case. However, the journalist’s source for the article, lawyer Maame Baffour-Awuah, was sentenced to seven days in jail, but spent […]