/ 26 January 2004

Clashes as columnist appears in court

Placard-carrying sympathisers of popular tabloid columnist Roy Clarke and government supporters clashed outside Lusaka’s High Court on Monday as Clarke appeared in a case in which he is contesting a government deportation order.

Additional police had to be posted throughout the court grounds to prevent further clashes between the two groups.

Three weeks ago, Home Affairs Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha issued a deportation order giving Clarke 24 hours to leave Zambia for allegedly insulting President Levy Mwanawasa and some Cabinet ministers in his weekly column, The Spectator, in the Post newspaper.

Clarke allegedly referred to Mwanawasa as foolish and confused, his agriculture minister as a ”knock-kneed giraffe”, the legal affairs minister as a ”red-lipped snake” and members of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) as ”monkeys, hippos and baboons”.

Clarke’s lawyer, Patrick Matibini, asked the court to quash the order because it was ”illegal, oppressive and irrational and a violation of press freedom”.

He said the minister’s decision to deport Clarke was taken on the grounds of his race and nationality, and that he was not given a chance to defend himself.

Matibini said the article in contention did not breech national security. Neither was Clarke’s presence in Zambia a danger to public peace and good order as claimed by the state.

State advocate Sunday Nkonde, however, said the minister is in charge of national security and has the right to deport anyone if he feels the country’s peace was at risk.

He said Clarke’s article was ”poor journalism” and without sensitivity to public good.

”To pretend to clothe it in satire does not help matters,” he said.

Ruling on the matter is expected in 40 days.

Clarke is married to a prominent Zambian civil rights activist with whom he has four children. He has been living in Zambia for more than 35 years. — Sapa-DPA