{"id":4763,"date":"2016-09-02T14:51:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T14:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2016-09-02T14:51:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T14:51:18","slug":"zambia-church-saddened-with-muzzling-of-the-media-in-zambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/09\/02\/zambia-church-saddened-with-muzzling-of-the-media-in-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"ZAMBIA: Church Saddened with Muzzling of the Media in Zambia"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mwenya Mukuka, Communications Office ZCCB<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) has joined other Church mother bodies in expressing alarm and sadness at the government\u2019s muzzling, harassing and persecution of private media institutions in Zambia.<\/p>\n

This is according to a joint statement released on Wednesday 31st<\/sup> August, 2016 in which the Church mother bodies have also condemned the threats and intimidation directed at the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement signed by Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) President Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu, Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) President Reverend Alfred Kalembo and Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) Board Chairperson Bishop Joseph Imakando, the churches say that the Zambian government\u2019s closure of The Post Newspaper<\/em>, Muvi<\/em> Television, and some radio stations marks a shameful period in Zambia\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply saddened and alarmed by the Government\u2019s muzzling, harassing and persecution of the private media,\u201d reads part of the statement. \u201cThe suspending of licenses for the Post Newspaper, Muvi TV<\/em> and closing down of some radio stations to mention but a few incidents mark a shameful period in our history reminiscent of the sad past when the world we knew was only through the Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Churches contend that the reasons advanced by the government and its agencies for closing the media institutions are lame and called for the immediate reinstatement of the licenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cLame excuses have been offered by the Government for its shameful action but the public cannot be deceived and has not swallowed the lies. Paradoxically it was the Post Newspaper<\/em> that so eloquently supported the cause of democracy and press freedom and Patriotic Front while in opposition greatly benefitted from the support and opportunities of the private media. Why lift the ladder now that the party is at the top?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President must take action to reverse this ill-advised and retrogressive affront on the freedom of expression. At the same time, we again appeal to all media out-lets, both public and private, to adhere to professional ethics and avoid being channels of hate speech.\u201d The Church leaders said.<\/p>\n

The government of Zambia recently suspended the broadcast licences for Muvi TV<\/em>, Komboni<\/em> and Itezhi<\/em> Tezhi<\/em> radio stations for allegedly running programmes that incited violence in the post-election.<\/p>\n

Itezhi Tezhi<\/em> radio broadcast licence has since been restored however Muvi TV<\/em> and Komboni<\/em> radio took the matter to court and still pending.<\/p>\n

\u223dEnds\u223d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mwenya Mukuka, Communications Office ZCCB Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) has joined other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}