By The Zambian Post (Chibaula Silwamba)

PRISON warders yesterday picked up Post photojournalist Thomas Nsama, accusing him of espionage and deleted photographs from his camera.

Narrating the ordeal, Nsama said the prison warders interrogated him for about one hour at Lusaka Central Prison, popularly known as Chimbokaila.

“I was outside the Supreme court this morning where Inktech managing director Mathew Mohan appeared for ruling but the case was adjourned together with other inmates at the same time. The prison warders called for transport so that inmates could be taken back to Chimbokaila,” Nsama narrated. “While they were waiting for transport, I went to take photos of Mohan, which I did. As I was about to leave Supreme Court grounds, a prisoner warder by the name of Felix Mukobeko, in the company of about five other prison warders attempted to grab my camera but I refused.”

He said prison warders ordered him to delete the photographs he had taken of Mohan but he refused.

Nsama was then bundled in the prisoners’ truck, in a different compartment from the remandees, and taken to Lusaka Central Prison.

He explained that he was then ushered into officer-in-charge Happy Chileshe’s office for questioning on the matter.

Nsama narrated that the prison warders explained to Chileshe that they brought him there because he was taking photographs of prisoners at the court.

He said Chileshe told him that the act amounted to espionage and the camera would be confiscated until investigations are concluded.

Nsama said the officers said they wanted to know why he was taking photographs of Mohan before they could even finish investigating the prison officers at Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital (UTH) concerning the story published last Sunday on serial killer Gilbert Chilala.

However, Nsama said the officers deleted all the photographs from his camera before releasing him.

But the Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of The Post described the conduct of prison authorities as a direct affront to press freedom targeted at journalists who craved to bring out the truth.

“The justification for Thomas’ harassment and humiliation he suffered on claims that he had committed espionage by taking pictures of Mohan is beyond one’s reasoning. This is clearly an overt war by the MMD government waged against journalists, especially those working for The Post newspapers,” the PFC stated. “It is clear that the MMD government has been waging a hate campaign by setting up state security institutions against journalists working for the Post.”

The PFC condemned the act by the prison officers.

“We believe that journalists working for The Post are motivated by the greater need to bring out information either through written text or images in the open for the consumption of the general public,” the PFC stated.

Post managing editor Amos Malupenga revealed that The Post was aware of maneuvers being planned against Abigail Chaponda following her story on Chilala.

“We are aware of what our colleagues from the prison department are planning to do against our Ndola based reporter Abigail Chaponda. However, we will not go into details. We will discuss this matter once they implement whatever they are planning to do against Abigail,” said Malupenga.

http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=13515

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