Attempts by the Patriotic Front government to block online media in Zambia has attracted the attention of a United States-based organisation – Committee to Protect Journalists – that has documented events leading to the four day blocking of one of the most critical websites.
CPJ also made attempts to call the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority but despite leaving messages, there was no response from the quasi state organisation to discuss the development which have been hatched by the Zambian government’s special intelligence division in collaboration with China.
The New York-based organisation which has defended media organisations and journalists that have come under attack from tyrannical regimes such as President Michael Sata’s said in a statement that a private website that documents alleged Zambian government corruption has been blocked in the country since Monday, its editor told CPJ.
The Zambian Watchdog’s Lloyd Himaambo has said that the website’s staff believes the authorities are responsible for ordering the blocking.
Internet and mobile service providers blocked domestic access to the Zambian Watchdog, a site that is registered out of the country but publishes content by Zambian journalists and editors, Himaambo said. The editor told CPJ that access to the site was possible only via one of the country’s three cellphone networks and that traffic to the website had been reduced by two thirds.
Staff at the Watchdog believe the government is behind the blocking because of its previous efforts to silence the site. It is not clear if the government urged Internet service providers to shut off access or used other means.
In August 2012, Zambia’s Minister of Tourism called for the banning of the Watchdog, saying that the website’s critical coverage could affect the country’s image in the lead-up to the U.N. World Tourism Organization meeting in August 2013, which Zambia is hosting, according to news reports. The website came under an even heavier attack by government officials in September 2012. News accounts reported that President Michael Sata had ordered government agencies to explore ways to block access to the site, and that Zambian Attorney General Mumba Malila was working on a law to restrict online media.
News accounts also reported last year that the Zambian government had engaged hackers to destroy online media, including the Zambian Watchdog.
“In September 2011, Zambians voted Michael Sata’s Patriotic Front into power and celebrated his commitment to end corruption and promote Zambian development. But in the past 12 months, we have witnessed a worrying trend of efforts to intimidate and control the media, and heavy-handed policing of opposition gatherings,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Sue Valentine. “No meaningful development is possible if people cannot air alternative views.”
Himaambo told CPJ that despite having some access, the site’s editors were unable to update the website. The staff had moved the site to a new, secure https address (https://zambianwatchdog.com), but feared that readers would have no way of knowing the new address. Himaambo said the loss of traffic threatened the financial sustainability of the site.
Vice-President Guy Scott celebrated the development in Parliament on Friday although he claimed not to have details of the blocking.
“This is the website that has accused everyone of being adulterous, a thief, terminally ill, corrupt, and so on, so we would be glad to have it shut because it is denting our image abroad,” Scott is quoted.
President Sata has bought off the country’s once independent newspaper, The Post Newspaper, whose owner Fred M’membe covertly worked with him in the 2011 elections to create a biased media atmosphere in the country. The only break from what nearly became a monotonous one sided media has been the Daily Nation and Muvi television but the rest of media houses churn out PF and State House propaganda.
Online media has fearlessly exposed some of the cruel and corrupt activities President Sata is engaged in ranging from his family, his friends and the PF in general thereby creating some discomfort in the ruling party. PF militia, which is a brutal wing under Wynter Kabimba, is said to be looking for journalists that may be contributing to online publications to either intimidate or in worse case scenario kill them.
Intelligence information obtained by Zambia Reports shows that Office of the President (OP) are a wild chase hunting for journalists that are contributing to online publications and their details are being passed on to members of the militia operating in Lusaka’s Longacres area.
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