A new report says that media freedoms in Zambia are under attack. The report says more than 60 percent of people surveyed think that the media cannot operate freely, due to frequent instances of harassment and intimidation faced by journalists and bloggers.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa, or MISA, launched its report on December 17 in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. MISA chairperson Lorraine Mwanza said that journalists in Zambia still face censorship and violence in the course of their duties.
Both she and the report cited the case of Thomas Zgambo, an investigative journalist, who has been arrested three times in the last 13 months for writing stories that Zambian authorities deemed overly critical. Zgambo faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of charges that include libel and sedition.
Zgambo told VOA that he will not stop writing and reporting.
“All the three cases basically, it’s a journalist trying to find answers on behalf of the public but I’m now in court because instead of the government answering, they have decided to use the police to criminalize journalism and take me to court. So I’m in court with three criminal charges. I’m in court with three criminal cases before three different magistrates,” he said.
Zgambo’s legal troubles started in November 2023, when he was arrested in connection with an article in which he alleged a government institution was renting a property from President Hakainde Hichilema.
In August of this year, he was arrested for a 2022 story about an allegedly illegal government purchase of fertilizer.
And in October, he was arrested for an article he wrote about food imports.
The most recent arrest came hours after President Hichilema promised to uphold press freedom in a speech read on his behalf by chief government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa.
Joan Chirwa, the founder of a Zambian media advocacy group, the Free Press Initiative, told VOA she agrees with the findings of the MISA report.
“We have seen political party figures still storming radio stations to disturb programming and threaten journalists there,” she said. “We have seen journalists being detained by the police. We have also seen journalists been lumped with criminal charges just because of what they have written and our biggest worry right now is what may likely happen as we get closer to the 2026 election.”
Chirwa criticized colonial-era laws being used by authorities against journalists in Zambia.
These include criminal defamation, sedition and state security laws which Chirwa says are a hindrance to journalists playing their role as a watchdog on the government.
However, at the launch of the MISA report, an official at the information ministry, Mumanga Morden Mayembe, argued that the government has not interfered with media freedoms at all.
Mayembe said the government has opened up the media space, as evidenced by its licensing of more than 200 radio stations, 50 TV stations and many online platforms.
“When platforms are few, then there will be few people expressing themselves on those platforms. When we just had [one] tv station, for you to appear on tv you needed to be a president, you needed to be a vice president, a minister or at least somebody with a name in society,” said Mayembe.
However, Muthoki Mumo, the Africa program coordinator with the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a recent statement that the continued harassment of Zgambo paints a stark picture of the emptiness behind the government ‘s pledges to protect journalists.
