WE WILL NOT REVEAL OUR SOURCE OF LEAKED PHONE CONVERSATION -KBN CEO

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WE WILL NOT REVEAL OUR SOURCE OF LEAKED PHONE CONVERSATION — KBN CEO

By Macdonald Mayaba

KBN Television Proprietor, Kennedy Mambwe has vowed that his media organization will never reveal the identity of their sources in the leaked phone conversation believed to have been between two state officials planning to undermine democratic proposes.

His station came under pressure from the state in January after it published a leaked phone call that implicates State House Aide for Politics, Levy Ngoma and Home Affairs Permanent Secretary, Josephs Akafumba.

The duo is heard on the conversation scheming on ways to bar a Democratic Party candidate from contesting the Kabwata by-election earlier this year.

Neither Akafumba nor Ngoma have publicly denied the allegation and Mambwe is surprised the state’s focus of investigation is on the source of the recording as opposed to the crime that the duo committed against democracy.

Mambwe disclosed this when he participated in Tuesday’s Digital Round Table organised by the Internews Network Zambia under the Open Spaces Project with support from USAID in Lusaka as part of the World Press Freedom Day Celebrations.

The discussion included Chapter One Foundation Executive Director, Linda Kasonde, International Media Lawyer, Joan Barat, UNZA Lecturer of Law, Dr. O’brien Kaaba and Caroline Kalombe of the Zambia Zambia Media Women Association, (ZAMWA) themed Journalism under Surveillance.

Byta FM’s Macdonald Mayaba reports that Mambwe said his editorial team published the conversation because it was in public interest and sought to undermine democratic processes.

Journalists are permitted to protect the identify of their sources with credible, but often sensitive information in public interest that is relevant to completing a report as long as they follow editorial guidelines.

And an International Media Lawyer, Joan Barata has called on the law makers to review existing laws are clear and targeted as opposed to being too general to implicate journalists in their line of work.

Barata also stated journalists should feel free to carry out their duties without feeling state operatives are monitoring their conversations.

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