(MISA/IFEX) – On 24 March 1999, Zambian police questioned Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development (AFRONET) executive director Ngande Mwanajiti in connection with a press release from the “Post” in which the editor accepted responsibility for publishing a story exposing Zambia’s military deficiencies. **Updates IFEX alerts of 25 March, 22 March, 19 March, 18 […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 24 March 1999, Zambian police questioned Inter-African
Network for Human Rights and Development (AFRONET) executive director Ngande
Mwanajiti in connection with a press release from the “Post” in which the
editor accepted responsibility for publishing a story exposing Zambia’s
military deficiencies.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 25 March, 22 March, 19 March, 18 March, 17 March,
15 March, 12 March, 11 March and 10 March 1999**
Police said they wanted him to assist them with investigations into the
espionage case involving the “Post” journalists.
Mwanajiti told the Zambian Independent Media Association (ZIMA) that three
policemen confronted him wanting information on how a press release on the
arrest of “Post” reporters, which was signed by editor-in-chief Fred
M’membe, had reached the privately owned Radio Phoenix. He refused to give
any information regarding the press release.
“I politely told them that I could not assist them but confirmed that we do
send alerts to various organisations,” Mwanajiti told ZIMA.
According to the “Post” newspaper, the officers who followed Mwanajiti were
detective sergeant Moses Ndakala, detective inspector Kenneth Mugala and
detective sub-inspector Raphael Mumanga.
On 23 March, police officers also approached Radio Phoenix editor David
Kumwenda in connection with a story the station aired in which M’membe urged
the police to release all his reporters who had been arrested and instead
arrest him. Kumwenda confirmed that three police officers visited him at his
office and asked him how he had got the story. He said he told the police
that he did not get the statement from M’membe. “They wanted to know the
source of the story but I told them that we had our own sources…later they
wanted to know how the press release was delivered to the radio station,”
Kumwenda told ZIMA.
