Although the Kenya-based East African Standard, one of Africa’s oldest continuously published newspapers, marked its 100th anniversary in November, journalism remains a difficult profession on the continent, with adverse government policies and multifaceted economic woes still undermining the full development of African media.
President Levy Mwanawasa was inaugurated on January 2 amid opposition charges of fraudulent elections and editorial comments in the independent press that the new head of state was the “puppet” of his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba. The election controversy, power struggles, and financial scandals in the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) dominated headlines in 2002.
Silence reigned supreme in Eritrea, where the entire independent press was under a government ban and 11 journalists languished in jail at year’s end. Clamorous, deadly power struggles raged in Zimbabwe over land and access to information, and in Burundi over ethnicity and control of state resources. South Africa, Senegal, and Benin remained relatively liberal…
Incumbent president Frederick Chiluba failed to convince Zambians that he should be allowed to run for an unconstitutional third term in the December 2001 general elections. Political controversies surrounding the elections dominated media headlines in Zambia all year long. Mounting tensions between the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and the opposition were mirrored in…
New York, August 21, 2001 — Fred M’membe, editor-in-chief of the independent Zambian daily The Post, was arrested today and charged with criminal defamation of the head of state, an offence under Article 69 of Zambia’s Penal Code. He was released after posting bail. The charges stem from an article and an editorial in the…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by a recent string of press freedom abuses in Zambia, and by your government’s increased monitoring of state-funded media. Given the hostile climate that local journalists now face, we have little confidence that they will be able to work effectively during the run-up to general elections scheduled for later this year.
AS TENSIONS WITH NEIGHBORING ANGOLA MOUNTED and politicians maneuvered to prepare for elections in 2001, Zambian journalists faced censorship, physical assault by police, and a host of repressive media laws. The most egregious attack on the independent press during the year was the trial of eleven journalists from the Lusaka daily The Post on charges…