MISA Zimbabwe condemns the arrest of Salim Dawood a Zambian photojournalist and local photo correspondent with international news agency AFP as unlawful and unwarranted.
Police arrested and detained Dawood on 12 September while he was taking pictures of a Zesco substation that is currently under construction in Kamwala South, in the Zambia capital, Lusaka.
It is reported that Dawood was following up on allegations that there were elements of corruption surrounding the construction of the substation.
Dawood’s camera was confiscated and he was detained at Kabwata police station. Police eventually released Dawood after being forced to pay an admission of guilt fine. The police deleted images that Dawood had captured.
The unlawful arrest and detention cannot be justified in a constitutional democracy such as Zambia which protects media freedoms and access to information.
The censorship of photojournalists remains an issue of great concern with photojournalists having been censored in Zimbabwe, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and now Zambia.
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MISA REGIONAL SOLIDARITY STATEMENT
