Zambia: Punish Journalists’ Attackers – Caritas

By Julius Phiri

CARITAS-Chipata Good Governance Programmes Coordinator, Mthaziko Zulu has appealed to the judiciary to mete out stiffer punishment to anyone harassing journalists in Zambia.

Mr. Zulu said the victimization and harassment of journalists was not health adding that meting out stiffer punishment would stop people victimizing journalists.

He said in Chipata yesterday that it was unfortunate that elderly persons like former MMD Lusaka Province Chairperson William Banda could still be in the habit of waging war against journalists.

“We have observed with dismay and discomfort that journalists are being victimized and harassed by politicians and the country should introduce laws that could mete out stiffer punishment to offenders,” he said.

He said physical attacks of journalists by politicians would only come to an end once the courts of law started meting out stiffer punishment to offenders.

He said Caritas-Chipata was shocked and saddened with the behavior of Mr. Banda towards a harmless journalist after serving in Government as governor during the UNIP era.

Mr. Zulu said Mr. Banda was supposed to be the first person to respect and appreciate the role of journalists because of being conversant with governance issues.

“As Caritas-Chipata we are shocked and saddened with the behavior of Mr. William Banda towards journalists. Mr. Banda is an elderly person with a lot of experience in governance issues as he once served as governor. He has served in various political parties holding high ranking positions. He was not supposed to act in that manner,” he said.

He said the work of journalists should be supported as most of the people were learning about the happenings in Zambia and abroad through the Press.

Last week, Mr. Banda who is now in the United Party for National Development (UPND), assaulted a Muvi TV camera person Lloyd Kapusa just before the politician was arrested

Mr. Banda has since apologized for his action but police are still pursuing him to answer assault and misconduct related offences.

Posted by admin on Aug 28 2012. Filed under African News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry