H. E. Frederick Chiluba
President of the Republic of Zambia
State House
Lusaka
Zambia

Vienna, 18 February, 1997

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 90 countries, is most concerned about the upcoming trial of Fred M’membe, founder and editor-in-chief of The Post, Zambia’s leading independent daily newspaper.

We are informed that Mr. M’membe is due to appear in magistrate’s court on Thursday, 20 February 1997, on charges of criminally defaming Your Excellency by reporting in an article last year a claim that the president had had a daughter with a Zairian lover. Mr. M’membe, who faces three years imprisonment if convicted, is one of three journalists awaiting trial on charges brought by Your Excellency’s government.

On 16 February 1997, Lweendo Hamusankwa, editor of the independent Chronicle, was arrested for publishing an allegedly false report on a break-in at a military base. The reporter who wrote the article, Boyd Phiri, was detained the following day. We understand that both are still being held and are to be charged with criminal libel and for publishing “false news” with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public.

Earlier this month, Masautso Phiri, special projects editor of The Post, was arrested and sentenced to three months in prison for publishing a column alleging that seven Supreme Court judges had been paid a bribe to reject an opposition challenge of the results of last year’s general elections.

IPI regards this latest crackdown to be an attempt by Your Excellency’s government to silence the critical voice of The Post, and to crush efforts to develop a media independent of state control. We strongly urge Your Excellency to ensure that members of the independent media in Zambia are allowed to pursue their right to “seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers” as guaranteed in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director