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Censored
February 5
The Post, CENSORED
Fred M'membe, The Post, IMPRISONED
Bright Mwape, The Post, IMPRISONED
Masautso Phiri, The Post, IMPRISONED
President Frederick Chiluba issued a decree banning the print edition of the Feb. 5 issue of the independent daily The Post as a "prohibited publication" under Section 53 of the Penal Code, and warning that any citizen found in possession of the issue could be charged with committing a criminal offense. The issue contained articles revealing the Zambian government's plan to hold a referendum in March to promulgate a controversial draft constitution. Editor in chief M'membe, managing editor Mwape, and special projects editor Phiri were arrested on Feb. 6 and charged with possession of a banned publication and possession of state secrets, a violation of Section 4 of the State Security Act. The three journalists were released on US$350 bail on Feb. 7, the same day that Chiluba ordered, by decree, the removal of the Feb. 5 issue from The Post's World Wide Web site, marking the first act of censorship on the Internet in Africa. On March 18, the High Court revoked the journalists' bail and The Post's lawyers immediately filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. At the time of the bail revocation, M'membe and Mwape were already in prison on other charges. In addition to writing a letter to President Chiluba urging him to reverse the ban and drop all charges against M'membe and his colleagues, CPJ launched a media campaign in March to bring world attention to the Zambian government's systematic harassment of the country's independent press. On Aug. 14, M'membe, Mwape, and Phiri pleaded not guilty in the Lusaka High Court to the charges that they had received and published classified information. The trial, which began on Oct. 18, continues. The state dropped the charge of possession of a banned publication because it could not prove "beyond [a] reasonable doubt that the three accused were found in possession of a state document containing information on the constitution."
November 25
Mundia Nalishebo, Zambia Information Service (ZIS), CENSORED
Abias Moyo, Zambia National Broadcasting Corp. (ZNBC), CENSORED
Gershom Musonda, ZNBC, CENSORED
Dominie Chimanyika, ZNBC-Kitwe, CENSORED
Chibamba Kanyama, ZNBC, CENSORED
Charles Banda, ZNBC Radio 2, CENSORED
ZIS deputy director Nalishebo; television station ZNBC's commercial manager Moyo; ZNBC subeditor Musonda; ZNBC-Kitwe news editor Chimanyika; ZNBC producer Kanyama; and ZNBC Radio 2 manager Banda were suspended indefinitely pending an investigation into allegations that they conspired with a local election monitoring group, the Zambia Independent Monitoring Team (ZIMT), to discredit the Nov. 18 presidential and general elections. ZIMT was among three independent monitors of the elections that declared that the victory of President Frederick Chiluba's Multiparty Movement for Democracy (MMD) was "not free and fair."
For more information contact africaweb@cpj.org