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Harassed
November 19
Zambia National Broadcasting Corp. (ZNBC), HARASSED
Ten members of the opposition Zambia Democratic Congress (ZADECO) forced their way into the Kitwe television studios of state-owned ZNBC. They demanded to appear on live television to declare their objections to alleged manipulation of the Nov. 18 presidential and parliamentary elections. Police based at ZNBC persuaded the ZADECO protesters to leave the TV studios.
November 22
Monitor, HARASSED
Police searched the offices of the Monitor newspaper and seized 13 computer diskettes, letters to the editor, and various press releases from international organizations. Police searched the offices of the Committee for a Clean Campaign (CCC), which is the Monitor's publisher, the Inter-Africa Network for Human Rights and Development (AFRONET), and the Zambia Independent Monitoring Team (ZIMT) on the same day. They were looking for bank books, statements, certificates of registration, computer disks, pamphlets, and magazines. The authorities did not disclose why they were conducting the searches. Both the CCC and ZIMT reportedly had declared that the presidential and general elections of Nov. 18 were not free and fair.
November 25
Emmanuel Chilekwa, Chronicle, HARASSED
Onassis Mandona, Chronicle, HARASSED
Chronicle managing editor Chilekwa and assistant editor Mandona were detained and interrogated at the Lusaka Central Police offices. They were questioned about a story printed in the Nov. 22-25 issue of the privately owned biweekly, which quoted opposition Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC) leader Dean Mung'omba as calling for the "isolation" of President Frederick Chiluba. On Nov. 22 and 23, two Criminal Investigations Department (CID) police officers had visited the editorial offices of the newspaper seeking to interrogate Chilekwa and Mandona about their sources.
November 26
Chibamba Kanyama, Zambian National Broadcasting Corp. (ZNBC), HARASSED
Kanyama was dismissed from ZNBC because he had been working at the same time for his own news agency, the Chibamba Kanyama Media Agency (CKMA), and because he had accepted 21 million kwacha (about US$16,000) from the Committee for a Clean Campaign. He allegedly used the money to produce a series of television-debate programs on the topic of the November presidential and general elections.
For more information contact africaweb@cpj.org