Home 9 Media freedom monitoring 9 Regional Solidarity Statement: Zambian photo journalist arrested and detained

Regional Solidarity Statement: Zambian photo journalist arrested and detained

14 Sep, 2018
MISA Zimbabwe condemns the arrest of Salim Dawood a Zambian photojournalist and local photo correspondent with international news agency AFP as unlawful and unwarranted.

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.

//END

MISA REGIONAL SOLIDARITY STATEMENT

About MISA

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) was founded in 1992. Its work focuses on promoting, and advocating for, the unhindered enjoyment of freedom of expression, access to information and a free, independent, diverse and pluralistic media.

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