On October 16, police in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, arrested investigative journalist Thomas Zgambo and detained him without charge for nearly two weeks. Zgambo writes for the online news outlet Zambian Whistleblower, which has exposed alleged corruption, human rights abuses, and abuse of power under President Hakainde Hichilema.
A day into his detention, Zgambo, 52, wrote on Facebook that the police had demanded access to his phones and other electronic devices, but had not told him what offense he supposedly committed. The media reported that Zgambo began a hunger strike on October 18 to compel the authorities to charge or release him.
Authorities eventually charged Zgambo with two counts of criminal libel before a Lusaka magistrate court on October 28. The court granted Zgambo bail on October 31, 15 days after his detention. “The idea is to punish the journalist for doing his job,” Zgambo’s lawyer, Jonas Zimba, said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) noted that this was Zgambo’s third arrest in the past year. “The judicial harassment of Zgambo exposes the emptiness of President Hakainde Hichilema’s repeated commitments to press freedom,” CPJ said.
The police had previously arrested and detained Zgambo for two days in August, for a post on the Zambian Whistleblower’s Facebook page about a property allegedly linked to President Hichilema that the government had rented. Authorities charged Zgambo with publishing seditious material, a colonial era offense that carries a minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment.
Zambia is party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which protect the right to freedom of expression. The United Nations Human Rights Council, in a 2017 resolution, recognized the “importance of creating a safe and enabling environment” and the need to protect journalists, whistleblowers, witnesses, and anti-corruption activists from “threats arising from their activities in preventing and fighting against corruption.”
Zambian authorities should stop harassing Zgambo through fabricated, politically motivated prosecutions and respect the rights of journalists to carry out their critical work exposing corruption and ensuring government accountability.
