The efforts to which the Zambian government have gone in
recent months to stifle the media have been criticised harshly by onlookers.
The offences range from new techniques like the online censorship of seemingly
offending websites, to the plain old brute tactics of intimidation and
unfounded detainment.
Recently, the government reportedly hired the help of
Chinese and Russian IT-experts to block websites that air corruption claims or
even cover current events. This has extended to two main culprits, the Zambia
Watchdog, a citizen newspaper covering all the latest political news in the
country and a similar website and media outlet, Zambia Report. Three journalists in recent weeks have also been
detained on tenuous grounds and at the weekend, a sizeable group calling
themselves the “Zambian bloggers” took to the streets to demand their release. Clayson
Hamasaka, Thomas Zymabo and Wilson Mpondamali, all linked to the Zambian
Watchdog are in custody, charged with sedition.
Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201307210330.html
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