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Home Human Rights Again, Zambia’s President To Hit Journalist Zgambo With 7-Years Prison Sentence For Reporting on Corruption, Bad Governance

Human Rights News

Again, Zambia’s President To Hit Journalist Zgambo With 7-Years Prison Sentence For Reporting on Corruption, Bad Governance

Confidence UbaniAugust 22, 20241 Mins read549

Zambian journalist Thomas Allan Zgambo is facing up to seven years in prison for reporting corruption and governance in the country.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Zgambo was arrested on August 6 for allegedly publishing seditious materials on the Facebook page of the online news outlet Zambian Whistleblower. His commentary questioned the government’s transparency regarding a property linked to President Hakainde Hichilema.

Zgambo reportedly spent two nights in police custody, during which authorities pressured him to reveal his sources. He is expected to return to court on August 22. Despite President Hichilema’s promises to ensure media freedom following his 2021 election, journalists in Zambia have continued to face harassment and arrests. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for the charges against Zgambo to be dropped and for Zambia to repeal laws that criminalise journalism.

This case follows a pattern of legal harassment against journalists in Zambia, where laws from the colonial era are still used to target the press. In 2023, Zgambo became the first Zambian journalist in seven years to be included in CPJ’s prison census. His arrest followed a report that the Zambia National Service was importing substandard genetically modified maise, a case for which he is due back in court on August 27.

In a related development, the recent murder of Guntila Muleya, the newly appointed director general of Zambia’s Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), has further shocked the nation. Muleya’s body was found on the outskirts of Lusaka with gunshot wounds, a rare occurrence in the reportedly peaceful southern African country. The police believe he was kidnapped after leaving work, but the motive behind the killing remains unclear and may be related to Zambia’s crackdown on press freedom.