POLICE WANT BLOGGER TO DROP THE NAME “EAGLE ONE”
why I shall not bow down to the UPND pressure of using Eagle One instead of Eagle One – Zambia.
Lusaka – 25th January, 2022.
Key Points…
1) Media freedom has been deteriorating around the world over the past decade.
2) In some of the most influential democracies in the world, populist leaders have overseen concerted attempts to throttle the independence of the media sector.
3) While the threats to global media freedom are real and concerning in their own right, their impact on the state of democracy is what makes them truly dangerous.
Fueling A Global Decline…
The stage – managed Lusaka Central Police protest against me over something I did not post is a clear indication that our fight for justice has touched some sensitive nerves. Mr. Hichilema can’t fight corruption. He is fake.
There is Eagle One – Zambia and a fake Eagle One.
On all my controversial posts, I share my contact details. WhatsApp: +260 977 430702 and my email address: editor@eagleonezambia.com
Mr. Hichilema is nothing but a liar who can’t stand people like me. He says one thing while he does the opposite.
I have enough evidence over articles on our page. Let’s go to court over the $50m fertiliser scandal not a fake post which never appeared on our website.
But Zambians must understand that the breakdown of global press freedom is closely related to the broader decline of democracy that Eagle One – Zambia has tracked for the past few years. I was arrested as Editor In Chief at Zambia Reports for telling the truth. What did Mr. Hichilema say? Exactly the opposite of what he is doing today. I stand with the 2.8m who he deceived.
Although the press is not always the first institution to be attacked when a country’s leadership takes an antidemocratic turn, repression of free media is a strong indication that other political rights and civil liberties are in danger.
Assaults on media independence are frequently associated with power grabs by new or incumbent leaders, or with entrenched regimes’ attempts to crush perceived threats to their control.
While populist leaders in democracies seek to secure and build on their gains by taming the press, established autocratic governments continue to tighten the screws on dissenting voices, as any breach in their media dominance threatens to expose official wrongdoing or debunk official narratives.
In Russia in 2018, authorities moved to block the popular messaging application Telegram after the company refused to hand over its encryption keys to security officials.
The government in Cameroon shut down internet service in the restive Anglophone region for most of last year, a heavy-handed reaction to protests and a nascent insurgency stemming from long-standing discrimination against the large Anglophone minority.
In Myanmar, two Reuters journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison after a flawed trial in which the court ignored plain evidence that they had been entrapped to halt their investigation of military atrocities against the Rohingya minority; although they were recently pardoned, they were not exonerated.
The downgrades in various countries can be attributed to a range of legal, political, and economic factors, but some stand out as more concerning and pervasive.
Violence and harassment aimed at particular journalists and media outlets have played some role in 63 percent of the countries with a press freedom score reduction over the past five years.
The 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi was the most infamous recent case, but it was hardly unique. Journalists in El Salvador received death threats in 2015 after they uncovered stories of police abuse and extrajudicial killings. A Malian journalist who was outspoken about rampant political corruption was shot in the chest in 2017.
Also that year, a Tanzanian journalist investigating the murders of local officials disappeared, and his fate remains a mystery.
Journalists’ ability to document opposition activities as well as the brutality of the regime response has helped to galvanize international support for democracy movements.
Mr. Hichilema must be told that Mpandashalo Mwewa’s debate on the $50m fertiliser scandal is not limited to his Kamwala South locality. The world is watching. Who thought Hon. Kampyongo would be out of power? Ba Chushi, I am not at your level.
Mpandashalo Evans Mwewa
WhatsApp: +260 977 430702