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| National |
| Chronicle Newspaper shut down |
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by
Mc Donald Chapalapata, 01 October 2003
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18:50:16
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Chronicle Newspaper, a weekly tabloid highly critical of government, has been shut down after sheriffs pounced on the newspaper on Tuesday confiscating all its computers.
Editor for Chronicle Pushpa Jamieson said in an interview Wednesday that the sheriffs came to seize the five computers following an outstanding defamation settlement case involving Jane Milanzi Kalemera.
She said the paper published an article on October 2, 2000 alleging that the government scholarship fund was being abused as civil servants who were upgrading their qualifications were relations of top government officials and this resulted in Kalemera suing the paper and being awarded damages amounting to more than K500,000.
The development came a day after sheriffs seized the newspaper’s car following another defamation case involving Water Development Minister Dumbo Lemani.
“I cannot rule out the fact that this is politically motivated. Both stories are coming from government ministries and they have sent the sheriffs almost at the same time. We asked the court if we could paying in instalments but we heard nothing until we saw the sheriffs coming. We have now been shut down,” she added.
She wondered how Chronicle was going to pay back the money after “taking away our source of revenue”.
But Secretary for Information Anthony Livuza denied government involvement in the matter, saying it’s just a coincidence that the individuals involved have decided to act almost at the same time.
“It is unfair for the Chronicle Newspaper to use a booster rocket for an unfair attack on government’s record on press freedom because the record is there for all to see. Chronicle is highly critical of government and it has been left free to publish for more than a decade and that says a lot about government’s record on press freedom,” said Livuza.
He also said government has been in the forefront promoting an independent media and would like to see diversity of national voices through the media.
“It is unfortunate to say that government has got a hand in this because these are two cases that went through a legal process and were finalised and now the individuals concerned are taking action on their own,” added Livuza.
Chronicle Newspaper recently won the National Media Institute of Southern Africa (Namisa) Malawi Chapter award of being the best investigative paper in the country.
The paper broke news that Bingu Mutharika had been chosen by President Bakili Muluzi to be a presidential candidate for the UDF in the 2004 elections.
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