Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

Two senior Zambian journalists have been detained two days after the country’s President, Frederick Chiluba, said his government would not interfere with press freedom. Managing director of “The Post” newspaper Fred M’membe and the paper’s editor-in-chief, Masautso Phiri, were arrested on 19 June 1995 in connection with a story the Zambian bi-weekly published stating that […]

**Updates IFEX alert dated 16 May 1995** The publisher and two editors of the weekly “Financial Gazette” are to stand trial on charges of criminal defamation on 5 July 1995. The charges relate to an article published by the newspaper in which it was alleged that President Robert Mugabe had married his secretary, Grace Marufu, […]

Staff at the parastatal Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) fear official interference in the corporation’s editorial policy is set to increase following an incident last Thursday 8 June 1995 when a government official entered the NBC newsroom and “ordered” that unedited footage of a presidential press conference be played in full on the evening television news, […]

Four senior members of Swaziland’s two daily newspapers, “Times of Swaziland” Director Paul Loffler and Editor Mashumi Twala, and “Swazi Observer” Managing Director Jeremiah Gule and Managing Editor Cyril Dhlamini, have been released on bail of R1000 each after being charged with contravening the Books and Newspapers Act for publishing and printing their respective newspapers […]

The state is considering prosecuting a theatre group because of its performances of a play referring to the murder of four politicians during the regime of former dictator Kamuzu Banda. An Associated Press (AP) report carried in the 17 March 1995 edition of the South African “Weekly Mail and Guardian” newspaper says that Malawi’s Chief […]

MISA’s Angola representative reports that Jonas Savimbi, leader of the UNITA rebel movement, and Holden Roberto, who heads the opposition FNLA, have both spoken on the need for media freedom in their country. Speaking on the rebel movement Radio Vorgan on 15 March 1995 in a speech delivered to mark the 29th anniversary of the […]

Secrecy charges against two journalists working for the weekly “Mmegi” newspaper were dismissed by the Lobatse High Court on 28 February 1995. The two journalists, “Mmegi” managing editor Titus Mbuya and freelance reporter Professor Malema, were accused in the early 1990’s under the National Security Act of unlawfully receiving “an official document marked `secret’” and […]

Journalists charge that the government has been using the act to victimise private newspapers. “The Official Secrets Act makes democracy meaningless because it prohibits meaningful participation of citizens, who are supposed to know what their government is doing in their name,” Fred M’membe, editor-in-chief of “The Post” newspaper, told IPS. “They cannot indulge in public […]