Arrest of our journalist unacceptable, regrettable
IT IS regrettable that our journalist, Thandizo Banda, was arrested and locked up by police on Sunday at Chowa Police Station in Kabwe for merely carrying out his routine duties. Banda had been assigned to cover Maria Zaloumis, daughter of Mwangala Zaloumis, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), who has been detained there in relation to the murder of 22-year-old Enoch Simfukwe a week ago.
When Zaloumis and her daughter Maria were in the office of Martin Kaliki, the officer-in-charge at Chowa Police Station, Banda professionally made his presence and mission known to the police officers at the Inquiries Desk and introduced himself as a journalist from The Mast.
It is unfortunate that a horde of excited police officers and some members of Zaloumis’ entourage physically manhandled Banda and confiscated his smart mobile phone when he captured pictures of her as her entourage as they were leaving the police station. Under Kaliki’s orders, they erased the pictures. To make sure Banda’s phone was completely wiped clean, the police officers even had to summon a specialist from the Cyber Security Unit.
What were the police trying to hide by keeping those pictures away from the public? This is unacceptable in a country like ours where press freedom is one of the pillars of democracy.
To make things worse, Banda was locked up in a congested cell for over three hours only to be charged with conduct likely to cause the breach of peace and forced to pay K89 admission of guilty fine. How would peacefully taking pictures of Zaloumis cause a breach of peace?
It is strange that the overzealous police officer Kaliki even had the audacity to threaten the journalist not to write about anything that had happened to him. Why should a senior police officer threaten a journalist if the actions of the police were beyond reproach and above board? What had Kaliki discussed with Zaloumis in his office and what had he promised her?
We strongly condemn the detention of Banda. The murder case is a matter of public interest. This should not be allowed to continue in a democracy like Zambia. It is important for police to understand that Zaloumis is a public figure who holds a very important position of ECZ Chairperson and it is not illegal for journalists to take pictures of her whenever and wherever she appears in public.
Zaloumis should quit her job if she feels uncomfortable about being photographed by journalists in both her public and private life. The hefty salaries and allowances she pockets every month come from the same taxpayers on whose behalf our reporter was acting. They deserve to know what she was doing at the police station.
It is important to note that Banda’s arrest also supports speculation that the police may be working to absolve Maria of responsibility for Simfukwe’s murder due to her connections to influential figures in the government, particularly her mother. Such actions will only serve to undermine public trust in democratic institutions and the rule of law.
Kaliki and his minions must also understand that the salaries they are paid by the State come from tax payers on whose behalf our reporter was gathering the news and those pictures they erased.
The detention has just made us more determined to report on this story, and no amount of threats will stop us from doing so. We know Kaliki was trying to impress his masters, but let him know that his real masters are the citizens we courageously serve.
It is important for Inspector-General of Police Graphel Musamba to realise that journalists play a vital role in upholding democracy because they provide citizens with necessary information to enable them to make informed choices and to hold those in power accountable. By exposing abuses of authority, corruption and human rights violations, they serve as a check on the government and promote open and informed public discourse – two things that are critical to self-governance and the defence of individual liberties.
The detention of our journalist has strengthened our resolve to hold those in authority accountable because failure to do so would only serve to strengthen a culture of impunity and disregard of rule of law.
As for the overzealous Kaliki, our humble message is that what you did amounts to abuse of your authority of office.
