Anthony Kunda
Seven Zambian reporters were arrested this week after their newspaper published reports that the Zambian army did not have the capacity to withstand an attack by the Angolan army.
The Post’s reporters Joe Kaunda and Kelvin Shimo were arrested on Tuesday night. Police later arrested Goodson Machona, Lubasi Katundu, Brighton Phiri, Amos Malupenga and Reuben Phiri.
The Post quoted senior army and air force officers on Tuesday saying that the Zambian army’s fighting unit did not even constitute one Angolan division.
Its editor, Fred M’membe, said the arrests were “a barbaric act aimed at crippling the newspaper. There is no justification for the arrests.”
He called on the government to release his staffers and arrest him instead. “As editor, I am responsible for what is published in The Post. It was my decision to publish the story on Tuesday. I alone must face the temerity of the state machinery.”
The arrests followed instructions by the deputy speaker of the Zambian government, Simon Mwila, to the Ministry of Defence to “mete out appropriate measures against The Post newspaper for exposing the country’s security system to the enemy”.
The Inter African Network for Human Rights and Development said in response that the “state drips with double standards. We ask the government to apply the same amount of pressure and pick up all ministers implicated in the Angola gun-running saga.
“Pouncing on reporters from privately owned newspapers will not solve the current crisis Zambia is facing. This crisis has nothing to do with Post Newspapers but everything to do with accusations and counter-accusations.”
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