admin
LUSAKA. — Police have charged the editor of Zambia’s leading private newspaper with three counts, among them criminal trespass, a police spokesperson said yesterday.
Fred M’membe, editor-in-chief of the Post Newspaper was arrested on Tuesday night when he, together with his wife Mutinta and the paper’s deputy managing editor Joseph Mwenda attempted to enter the offices which have been closed since last week by authorities.
The offices were closed by the country’s revenue collection agency, the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), over unpaid taxes. The trio was beaten by the police as they tried to enter the offices following an ex parte order issued by the Revenue Appeals Tribunal, which ordered the revenue agency to allow the paper operate smoothly without any interference and to surrender all its property.
Zambia police deputy spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said the trio was formally charged with three counts of breaking into a building with intent to commit a felony, criminal trespass and uttering a false document.
The trio has since been released on police bond and will appear in court next week.
Stakeholders have since expressed concern over the continued harassment of the newspaper, saying it was politically motivated and meant to silence it in the run-up to the general elections on August 11.
On Tuesday, a regional media body issued an international alert on the government’s continued crackdown on the country’s main independent newspaper.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter said the arrest of the trio was proof that the action by the government was politically motivated. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter