A ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) member of parliament (MP), David Kapangalwendo, has called for a government crackdown on journalists working for newspapers which are critical of government, in addition to tougher action against the newspapers themselves. On 27 January 2000, the “Post” newspaper quoted Kapangalwendo as saying, “They have gone too far, particularly […]
A ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) member of parliament (MP), David Kapangalwendo, has called for a government crackdown on journalists working for newspapers which are critical of government, in addition to tougher action against the newspapers themselves.
On 27 January 2000, the “Post” newspaper quoted Kapangalwendo as saying, “They have gone too far, particularly a certain newspaper. One newspaper recently said the appointing authority must be probed. The press has no respect for those in authority and I think they have abused the word democracy. I think the Ministry of Home Affairs should do something and I am urging the government, through you Mr. Speaker, to do something about such newspapers.” The police in Zambia fall under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Reacting to Kapangalwendo’s remarks, Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA) chairman David Simpson said he was “alarmed” by the MP’s remarks. “His statement is a direct threat to all
journalists in the country. It is meant to remind them about the ‘grave consequences’ of being critical of the ruling MMD and government. Coming from an MP belonging to government in power, which has in recent years jailed reporters, everyone concerned should take
Kapangalwendo’s remarks very seriously, including journalists working for the state-owned media. He should be condemned in the strongest terms so that he is aware of the consequences of such
utterances,” Simpson said.
Simpson added that the MP’s remarks did not reflect the “ability to tolerate even the most jaundiced of opinions,” which President Chiluba referred to when opening parliament on 21 January. “‘Abuse of the word democracy’ is a catch phrase which those in authority like to use whenever they are embarrassed by criticism,” Simpson said.
In his address on 21 January, Chiluba expressed satisfaction with his government’s efforts to liberalise the media, saying this had promoted “diversity of views and opinions”. “This diversity has served the country well, as the public now has the opportunity to assign value to the credibility of the various media houses. It is no longer for the government, alone to render their interpretation to events and circumstances confronting the nation. Zambians have the opportunity to examine and
determine the veracity of interpretations. Our success as a country can be gauged by our ability to tolerate even the most jaundiced of opinions which hardly acknowledge the success of programmes that government has implemented,” Chiluba said.
Government is the dominant player in the Zambian media market. Among others, it owns the only national radio and television network, two out of three national daily newspapers and the only national news agency.
