Be free – and go to jail!
To work as an independent journalist in Zambia is at ‘owners’ risk. Statute books are full of repressive laws that can put a journalist in trouble any time. In fact there is a law against almost everything a journalist in Zambia can do. There are laws like insulting the flag or other national symbols and insulting foreign princesses. This means that a critical report on an official of a foreign government can lead to the arrest of a journalist in Zambia.
A journalist can’t take photographs of certain buildings in Zambia as that is a 
criminal offence under the State Secrets Act. Under the same act, a journalist can be jailed if found with a government memo. There is also the criminal offence of ‘publishing false news’. This one is very dangerous as any news item can be refuted and the reporter charged under this head. And there is a special law called ‘defamation of the president’.
In the Zambian constitution, there is some scribbling about the freedom of expression. But practically, there is no really freedom. Citizens just whisper and murmur to each other over their concerns. The means to communicate their ideas to a wider public are just not there. Instead, they are subjected to a one way communication where the powers use the mass media to tell the public what they need to know. Newspapers are expensive and full of propaganda. Unfortunately even the privately owned media is difficult to trust. They operate like small megaphones or newsletters for the opposition.
There is some hope in the new media though, despite it’s limitations in terms of public accessibility. Online journalism, depending on who is controlling it, gives citizens an opportunity to get news fast, respond and debate issues.
Where I work, at the Zambian Watchdog Online, we have a policy to be neutral and honest. Despite risks involved, I believe that it is a wonderful place to work from as each journalist is allowed to develop his story ideas knowing well that there are no 'sacred cows' here. Moreover, it is satisfying to know that apart from the thousand of ordinary people who read the Watchdog every day, government leaders, diplomats accredited to Zambia and tourists spend hours searching for information on the Watchdog.
We publish news on and about Zambia on 24 hours basis. We have a very lively platform where readers debate and analyze whatever news is published. We do not edit or block comments unless they contain, in our opinion, excessive abusive language, insults or unsubstantiated allegations.
But the bad media law regime has followed us even on the Internet. We receive at least two threats of law suits every week. At the time of writing this, we had three ongoing cases in court. One of the persons who have taken us to court is seeking the closure of our website.Our site was hacked once and all data deleted in mid 2009. We rebuilt it at great cost especially that we do not get any meaningful income from the website.
Threats of violence have been growing in frequency so much that we have decided to remove our contact details from the site and also have stopped putting (by-lines) names of our journalists to the articles. In late 2009, a government permanent Secretary (Chief executive of a government ministry) phoned me and said he will hunt me down and beat me up unless we removed an article about him from our site. We refused to delete the article, because what we wrote was true.
As a practicing journalist who has been following media law reforms in Zambia for a while now, I think that press freedom in Zambia will take a long time to be achieved, guaranteed and protected. It will take nothing less than a revolution, if not evolution.
Lloyd Himaambo, Editor of The Watchdog
Lusaka, Zambia
