A leading United Kingdom newspaper as reported the ongoing assault of free speech in Zambia by President Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front following the government’s decision to blocking access to leading independent websites, Zambian Watchdog and Zambia Reports, on various devices.
This is in addition to the harassment of three journalists – Clayson Hamasaka, Thomas Zyambo and Wilson Mpondamali – who have on separate occasions been picked up by Zambia Police for sedition and being found in possession of secret documents linked to the Zambian Watchdog.
According to the widely respected UK newspaper, The Guardian, the Zambian government has stepped up its harassment of independent media outlets by arresting journalists and jamming two news websites.
In a country where the state already exercises control over most media, the authorities have blocked domestic access to Zambian Watchdog, and Zambia Reports.
Both sites run articles critical of the government led by President Michael Sata. Zambian Watchdog was forced into exile in 2009. Its journalists operate anonymously within Zambia, and the editors live in exile.
Police arrested freelance journalist Wilson Pondamali on Wednesday (17 July) while he was travelling home from the capital, Lusaka, and accused him of being a contributor to Zambian Watchdog.
Pondamali’s arrest follows the 9 July arrests of two other journalists accused of writing for Zambian Watchdog – Clayson Hamasaka and Thomas Zyambo.
Zyambo was released on bail after being charged with sedition, which carries a seven-year minimum jail sentence. Police are reported to have found documents in his home relating to Sata’s founding of his Patriotic Front party, which was elected to power in 2011.
Hamasaka was not charged but police did not return confiscated items, including his family’s laptops and a mobile phone.
The New York-based press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has called on the Zambian authorities to stop their harassment of Zambian Watchdog.
“It is alarming to see a democratically elected government determined to silence and intimidate its critics,” said CPJ’s Africa programme coordinator Sue Valentine.
Almost all media in Zambia is state controlled. The biggest “independent” newspaper, The Post, is controlled by a close ally of President Sata and toes the party line. The Daily Nation is critical of the government, and is being sued by Sata. Its editor, Richard Sakala, is also facing several government lawsuits.
An organisation called the Coalition for the Defence of Democratic Rights in Zambia petitioned the Commonwealth in January this year to investigate violations of the Harare Declaration. It accused Sata’s government of “a persistent record of intolerance for freedom of expression.”
The report in the Guardian highlights the growing international discontent of President Michael Sata and his government which is turning Zambia from a beacon of democracy into a new African dictatorship.
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