FPI CONDEMNS HARRASSMENT OF TIMES OF ZAMBIA PHOTOJOURNALIST BY CHIENGI MP
Lusaka, Tuesday, July 25, 2023
The Zambia Free Press Initiative (FPI) has condemned the alleged assault and spitting on a Times of Zambia Journalist, Henry Chunza, by Chiengi Member of Parliament, Ms Given Katuta.
FPI Founder and Executive Director, Joan Chirwa, says the behavior by Ms Katuta is regrettable especially that every member of parliament is expected to have some level of knowledge about the work of journalists.
After being suspended from Parliament by the Speaker of the National Assembly on Friday last week, Ms Katuta attempted to grab a camera from the Journalist when he took pictures of her as she was coming out of the house and in the process, spat on him.
“As Free Press Initiative (FPI), we are really concerned and saddened by the happenings at the National Assembly last week. We were informed of the harassment of Henry Chunza, a Photojournalist from the Times of Zambia by Chiengi Independent Member of Parliament Given Katuta whom we understand was assisted by other MPs to try and assault this journalist. And one of those MPs identified in the police statement was Chawama MP Tasila Lungu,” she said. “This is very disappointing behavior coming from MPs who are held in high esteem by members of the public, and especially electorates that entrusted them with a Hyde responsibility to represent them in the National Assembly.”
The FPI Executive Director said the National Assembly is a place that allows journalists to enter and do their work freely.
Ms Chirwa said the journalists could not have been allowed to do their work if at all it was a place where media personnel were not allowed to have access to.
She said the fact that Katuta was in a place where journalists were allowed to take photos meant that the journalist was supposed to carry out his work without interference.
Ms Chirwa said the nature of the assignment where the MP was told to walk out the House by the Speaker of the National Assembly is newsworthy for any journalist that has nose for news.
“No journalist can miss such an opportunity to take good pictures of the Honourable MP. I am not sure if I should even use the word Honourable in this respect especially that the conduct of this particular MP is totally dishonourable because we do not expect anything like that from MPs for that matter,” she said.
Ms Chirwa reminded MPs to understand the role of journalists and accord them the necessary respect whenever they are doing their work.
Ms Chirwa is disappointed that people entrusted to formulate laws are the ones in the forefront of breaking such laws through mistreatment of journalists.
“We saw her justification of whatever happened and unfortunately, without even a line of apology to the journalist that she harassed, that is very unfortunate,” she said.
Ms Chirwa has urged the police to handle the matter professionally for it to serve as a deterrent measure to others in the habit of assaulting journalists.
“We hope that she can do her own soul searching and we hope that the police can do their work because such conduct should not be tolerated at all. It is better that some lessons are learnt from what happened last week,” she said.