Stefaans Brummer
THE media are under renewed attack in some African countries, if a recent spate of arrests and bannings, and an apparent assassination attempt are anything to go by.
The Post of Zambia, long a thorn in the side of President Frederick Chiluba, this week came under the strongest censure from government yet, when an edition of the paper was banned, the newspaper offices were searched by plain-clothes police and three editors arrested.
Meanwhile, a Zanzibar newspaper has been banned from publishing after it carried a series of articles critical of the island government; a Nigerian newspaper publisher reportedly survived an assassination attempt; and the deputy editor of a Zimbabwe publication came under fire for publishing a story critical of President Robert Mugabe.
The Post managing director Fred M’membe and editors Bright Mwape and Masautso Phiri were charged on Tuesday for possession of prohibited publications reference to their own newspaper, the Monday edition of which Chiluba banned by presidential decree and for a transgression of the Official Secrets Act.
Before their arrest on Tuesday, M’membe and Mwape told the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) that Chiluba had warned members of the public that anyone found with the Monday edition was committing a crime. Police were attempting to confiscate all copies.
The Official Secrets Act charge appears to relate to the reason the paper was banned: M’membe said the Monday edition carried an article exposing authorities’ secret plan to force through the country’s disputed draft constitution next month. The newspapermen’s lawyer said the state was claiming his clients had received classified information for the article.
The Post has carried a string of exposes claiming Chiluba was not born in Zambia and that he had lied about his academic qualifications and parentage. Phiri and M’membe were charged last year with criminal libel after The Post published a story in which a woman claiming to be Chiluba’s mistress said she had been tortured by police.
In the other incidents:
l The privately owned Zanzibar newspaper Majira was banned by the island’s information ministry a fortnight ago. The ministry cited a number of articles questioning President Salmin Amour’s political conduct after the elections in October last year.
Majira editor-in-chief Anthony Ngaiza told Misa he had published, among others, an editorial referring to Amour as a hooligan when members of the main opposition party, the Civic United Front, were harassed and detained without trial. Ngaiza said he believed the ban was an attempt to cover up on the rising tension between the opposition and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi. The paper was taking legal action to challenge the ban.
l Alex Ibru, publisher of Nigerian independent newspaper the Guardian, was reportedly shot in his car in Lagos by unknown assailants last week. He survived.
l Trevor Ncube, deputy editor of Zimbabwe’s Financial Gazette, was suspended by his newspaper for a month this week after he published a story, but was reinstated on Wednesday. The story was supplied by Reuters news agency, claiming that Mugabe had asked his pilots to jump the queue at Maseru airport.
Reuters Southern Africa acting bureau chief Ian Mackenzie said later: We are satisfied with the sourcing of our story from Maseru.