>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 11:47:27 -0200
>From: David Lush - MISA <dlush@ingrid.misa.org.na>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <misa-news@wn.apc.org>
>Subject: ZAMBIA ALERT
>
>Issued by Committee to Protect Journalists in New York:
>
> Date: February  23, 1996
>
>     ZAMBIA: Editor-in-chief, managing editor and columnist in hiding
>
>     Managing director and editor-in-chief Fred M'membe, managing editor
>     Bright Mwape and columnist Lucy Banda Sichone of "The Post" have gone
>     into hiding to avoid imprisonment for charges of contempt of
>     Parliament.
>
>     On Jan. 30, Vice President Godfrey Miyanda raised in Parliament a
>     point of order against "The Post" for articles M'membe and Sichone
>     wrote in the daily's Jan. 29 edition.  The two articles commented on
>     Miyanda's criticism of the Supreme Court which, on Jan. 10, declared
>     unconstitutional a landmark ruling requiring people to obtain police
>     permits for any public gatherings. (See IFEX alert of Feb. 5.)
>
>     Mmembe's article, titled "What will replacing the Public Order Act
>     mean?", criticised the vice president for his utterances in Parliament
>     which he made knowing he was protected by the National Assembly Powers
>     and Privileges Act. This act originated in colonial days to prohibit
>     "outsiders" (Africans in colonial days, non-Members of Parliament
>     today, such as citizens, including journalists) from contesting or
>     criticizing the proclamations of MPs.
>
>     Sichone, in her article "Miyanda has forgotten the need for Justice,"
>     reminded the vice president that the same judges he was now
>     criticising were, during the Second Republic, courageous enough to
>     acquit him of treason charges.
>
>     Mwape wrote an article titled, "Miyanda missed the point," which again
>     looked at the contradictions in the vice president's complaint.
>     Speaker of the National Assembly Robinson Nabulyato included Mwape's
>     article in his ruling even though the vice president did not
>     originally refer to it in his point of order.
>
>     On Wednesday, Feb. 21, Speaker Nabulyato found the trio guilty of
>     contempt of Parliament and referred the matter to the Standing Orders
>     Committee (which is dominated by the ruling Movement for Multiparty
>     Democracy [MMD] party) for sentencing.  The trio were summoned before
>     the committee today, Feb. 23, but did not appear. They face either a
>     fine, a twelve-month possible hard labour imprisonment, or both.
>
>     Presently, the trio are maintaining a low profile as lawyers prepare
>     papers for a petition to the High Court challenging the
>     constitutionality of the National Assembly Powers and Privileges Act.
>
>     RECOMMENDED ACTION:
>     Send appeals:
>     --expressing concern/outrage (take your pick) that M'membe, Mwape and
>     Sichone were convicted before being tried by the Parliament and not in
>     a court of justice;
>     --calling for a reversal of the convictions;
>     --demanding an end to the harassment of the independent press in
>     Zambia, particularly "The Post."
>
>     SEND APPEALS TO:
>     Robinson Nabulyato
>     Speaker of the National Assembly
>     PHONE: (+260 1) 292 425/427
>
>David Lush
>Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
>Private Bag 13386
>Windhoek, Namibia
>Tel. +264 61 232975, Fax. 248016
>e-mail: dlush@ingrid.misa.org.na
>
>
>
>
>