Paris | Saturday
ACCORDING to information gathered by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF – Reporters Without Borders), members of Malawi’s youth league of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) assaulted Brian Ligomeka, correspondent of the South-African agency African Eye News Service, on 12 August 2001.
The journalist was covering the arrival of foreign heads of state attending the summit of the Southern Africa Development Community at the international airport in Blantyre when several men caught him and pushed him outside the buildings.
The youths of the party accused him of being a spy for the opposition and threatened to kill him. They then beat him up.
Brian Ligomeka is suffering from a bruised jaw and leg. He stated that a policeman finally helped him to escape and took him to the closest police station.
“I am grateful to him because after many police officers just looked at the UDF officials beating me, he saved my life” testified the journalist. The police launched an inquiry but nobody has been arrested yet.
In a letter addressed to the President of Malawi, Bakili Muluzi, RSF protested against the increasingly tough repression against the independent press.
RSF asked the head of state to publicly confirm his commitment to press freedom and to act quickly so that media professionals can work freely and safely throughout the country.
“It is your responsibility to call on militants and supporters of the ruling party to remain calm” explained Robert Menard, general secretary of RSF. “We ask you to take necessary measures to ensure that newspapers are freely distributed in Malawi, without considering their editorial tendency” added Mr. Menard. – RSF-Afrique