Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia has strongly condemned the violent attacks on Journalists from Radio Phoenix and Millennium Radio by unruly UPND cadres during the party’s press briefing yesterday.
MISA Zambia Chairperson Hellen Mwape says that it is unfortunate that the cadres descended on the journalists who were there to merely do their job of gathering information in the public’s interest.
Ms Mwale says MISA hopes that the UPND leadership will get to the bottom of the matter and discipline the cadres involved.
She says paying a blind eye to the attack will encourage such acts at other similar forums, thereby making it unsafe for journalists to cover the party’s activities for fear of their personal safety.
She says MISA will engage the UPND leadership to chart a way forward and ensure the matter comes to its logical conclusion and the perpetrators brought to book.
Ms Mwale adds that MISA stands in solidarity with the journalists that were attacked and calls on them not to relent in their duty of information dissemination in respect of the public interest.
She has further called on all media practitioners to unite beyond all differences in view of the various infringements the media fraternity is currently facing as evidenced by political violence against journalists, legal and other persecution of media houses as well as suppression of dissenting views