His Excellency Frederick Chiluba
President of the Republic of Zambia
Office of the President
Lusaka
Zambia

Vienna, 10 March 1999

The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly condemns the arrest of five journalists in Zambia.

We are informed that police in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, set out late on Tuesday, 9 March, to arrest journalists from the Post newspaper, apparently after an order for them to arrest all editorial staff before dawn.

According to our sources, the following Post reporters have been already picked up: Bright Phiri, Kelvin Shimo, Joe Kaunda, Amos Malupenga and Lubasi Katunda. We understand that reporters Goodson Machona and Dixon Jere may have also been arrested. The whereabouts of Post editor-in-chief Fred M’membe are unknown.

The arrests followed an uproar in the National Assembly after the Post published a lead story on 9 March, entitled “Angola Worries Zambia Army, ZAF,” which outlined the ill-preparedness of the Zambian military and claimed that the country would be incapable of defending itself against neighbouring Angola. National Assembly Deputy Speaker Simon Mwila directed Defence Minister Chitalu Sampa to immediately take action against the Post for allegedly putting the country’s security under threat.

IPI regards the arrest of the Post’s editorial staff as a gross violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers,” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and a blatant attempt to silence the critical voice of the Post. We therefore urge you to ensure that the journalists are released immediately and unconditionally. We further urge an immediate end to the campaign of harassment being waged against the Post over the past seven years.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director