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To: IFEX Autolist (other news of interest)
From: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), [email protected]

Zambia Alert Update

January 26, 2004

Clarke ruling expected in 40 days

* The following is an update of MISA Alerts and Statements issued on January
6, 7, 9 and 14, 2004. Contact [email protected] for more information.

On January 26 2004, Judge Phillip Musonda announced that he would
communicate his ruling in the Roy Clarke deportation case in 40 days time.

The lawyer representing Roy Clarke, a British national facing deportation
from Zambia for having written a satirical article which officials deemed
insulting of President Mwanawasa and some ministers, on January 26 argued in
the Lusaka High Court that the decision to deport his client was "illegal",
"irrational" and "improper".

Clarke's lawyer, Patrick Matibini, told Judge Musonda that Minister of Home
Affairs Ronnie Shikapwasha acted in a heavy-handed way when he decided to
deport Clarke on January 5 2004, simply because he found the satirical
article which Clarke wrote offensive.

Matibini said the law required the minister to prove that a deportee was a
"danger to peace and good order" to justify deportation, but in this case,
the state had failed to prove this fact. Matibini said it was regrettable
that the minister had failed to see the humorous side of the article in
question. "The article did not insult nor was it intended to insult
government leaders and citizens at large. The article was humorous, albeit
critical," he said.

Matibini further argued that the deportation was "a serious and unjustified
onslaught on freedom of expression and press freedom" because through that
action government sought to silence critical views.

However, Solicitor General Sunday Nkonde said the decision by the minister
was not irrational, neither was it in bad faith because he took the law into
consideration when arriving at the decision. Nkonde said further that
freedom of expression was "not limitless" and was subject to the
Constitution and other legislation such as the Immigration and Deportation
Act.

He said the Immigration and Deportation Act gave him absolute discretion to
decide who to deport and he did not have to give the reasons. Further, he
said the article exhibited poor journalistic judgement by Clarke, "and to
pretend to clothe it in satire does not help matters," he said.

In response, Matibini said if the decision by the Minister was upheld "it
would amount to a licence to eject anybody who in their sole judgement is
considered to be practicing poor journalism. This is a recipe for anarchy,"
he said.

Meanwhile, the state owned Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC)
radio reported that cadres of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy
(MMD) attacked three women outside the court buildings. The women were
wearing t-shirts bearing messages in support of Clarke. The cadres allegedly
ripped the t-shirts from the bodies of the women, leaving them exposed from
the waist upwards.

BACKGROUND

On January 5 2004, Roy Clarke was given 24 hours to leave Zambia by Minister
of Home Affairs Ronnie Shikapwasha, following the publication of a satirical
piece in his "The Spectator" column in the "Post" newspaper of January 1.
Clarke used animal figures in a satirical comment on the current social,
economic and political situation in Zambia, along the same lines as George
Orwell in "Animal Farm".

Zoé Titus
Regional Programme Coordinator: Media Freedom Monitoring
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht Street
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek, NAMIBIA
Tel: +264 61 232975
Fax: +264 61 248016
Cell: +264 81 128 3919
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.misa.org

PROMOTING MEDIA DIVERSITY . PLURALISM . SELF-SUFFICIENCY . INDEPENDENCE

**The information contained in this autolist item is the sole responsibility
of MISA**