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 […]
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
discourse because they know almost nothing whilst government
officials have all the so-called facts,” he added.
According to M’membe, private papers in Zambia almost always
operate in defiance of the law as much of their information is
obtained through supposedly illegal channels. As a result,
journalists are at constant risk of arrest and prosecution. “We
have seen how government discriminates against us (the private
media) in the manner in which independent press reporters are
dragged through courts over offenses which they ignore whenever
they are committed by members of state-owned media,” M’membe
says. During the past year, M’membe and his colleagues at “The
Post” have faced a barrage of law suits, most of which are still
outstanding. The paper’s lawyer and Zambia Law Association
Chairperson, Sakwiba Sikota, has accused the government of waging
a campaign of “legal persecution” against his client.
Sikota confirms that there has been no deliberate attempt by the
government to weed out oppressive laws from the statute books.
“Did you know that it is still a criminal offence to possess
communist literature of any kind?” Sakwiba Sikota told IPS. Adds
M’membe: ‘The laws that they (the MMD government) condemned
Kaunda for maintaining are the same laws they now declare to be
faultless,” he said. “How hypocritical can you get?”
RECOMMENDED ACTION
Please write to the Zambian authorities:
– pointing out existing legislation restricting the media
contradicts international treaties on freedom of expression, and
urge the authorities to take the recommendations of the Media
Reform Committee, and to review existing legislation regulating
the media as a matter or urgency
Appeals To
President Frederick Chiluba
State House
Independence Avenue
Lusaka, Zambia
Fax: +260 1 221939
Copies to:
MISA-ZAMBIA
National Mirror
PO Box 320199
Lusaka
Zambia
Fax. +260 1 263050
