Misanet: 2 January 1999 (originally Dec 10, 1998)
MEDIA: INTERNET ROW OVER NEWSPAPER'S REPORTING STYLE
Zambia's The Post has long had an outspoken presence on the Internet and its reports have troubled authorities. Now the state-controlled Daily Mail challenges its independent rival's cyberspace view of events in Zambia.
By DOUGLAS HAMPANDE in Lusaka
Internet media freedom in the Pacific
THE POST newspaper's presence on the Internet is damaging Zambia's image globally, charged information and broadcasting minister Newstead Zimba yesterday [December 9, 1998].
Zimba, touring the state owned and government controlled Zambia Daily Mail, accused The Post of "splashing a wrong impression of Zambia all over the world through irresponsible reporting".
He said the newspaper had abused the freedom of the press the MMD government had accorded the media in Zambia.
"The paper is splashing damaging reports and writing all sorts of things. One would think these people belong to a different country," Zimba said.
"Thank you Zambia Daily Mail staff for correcting this bad impression since you joined the Internet."
Zambia Daily Mail managing editor Charles Kakoma told Zimba that Zambians abroad were fearing to return home because of the "negative reporting from some independent newspapers".
"For a long time only The Post was on the internet but since we went on the internet we have helped to change the image of Zambia abroad," Kakoma said.
Post editor-in-chief and managing director Fred M'membe, reacting to Zimba's charges, said "unlike Mr. Kakoma and other journalists working for government mouth-pieces, we are not public relations officers whose only discernible occupation is to portray a good image of the MMD government".
"Our role as a newspaper will not be defined by Mr. Zimba or the MMD's expediences of the moment. This government found us publishing and it will leave us publishing if it doesn't assassinate the newspaper as it has been trying to do over the last seven years," M'membe said.
"It is the activities of Mr. Zimba and his colleagues that are tarnishing Zambia's image, not our journalism."
M'membe said it would appear that anyone who criticises or exposes the MMD government's unacceptable political practices is bad - be he a fellow politician, clergyman, businessman, academician or indeed a journalist.
"When the MMD government received criticism from the international media like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN) and the South African media, they called all of them names.
But we know the BBC is one of the world's most respected newsmedia organisations," M'membe said. "And we haven't forgotten their charges against the BBC, CNN and the South African media."
He said it is the government's own deeds that have destroyed its image and not The Post's internet reports as the minister claims.
"It was not us who told them to unjustifiably and maliciously detain former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda. This caused them problems abroad, but we merely reported what they had done.
It was not us who told them to torture Dean Mung'omba and other coup suspects, we only exposed their cruelty and lack of respect for the humanity of others," M'membe said.
"It was them, not us, who arrested and victimised Rajan Mahtani over a maize deal that had gone sour. This earnned the government a bad image, but we merely reported what had transpired."
M'membe added: "Of course a government that behaves in this way will have its image tarnished when the media expose its misdeeds and will hate journalists who report their bad acts."
He said the economic crisis that has earned Zambia a bad image and is scaring many Zambian professionals from returning home was not created by The Post but is a result of the government's own policies and programmes.
"Reporting that over 70 per cent of Zambians live in abject poverty is negative but it is the truth. These are World Bank statistics," he said.
"The only sure way for government to clear its bad image is by doing good, any other way is illusory and will achieve nothing. We are not to blame for the Zambia's political, social and economic crisis. Mr. Zimba should not blame the messenger."