Introduction

PRESS IN ZAMBIA


Press in Zambia


Introduction
ABBREVIATIONS IN THIS BOOK……………………………….xii

FOREWORD ………………………………………………….....xiii
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….………1

GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUNG OF ZAMBIA …………………………………7

Geography……………………………………………………………………..…………..7
History ………………………………………………………………………….…………9
Earliest Times to 1900…………………………………………………………………….9
Colonial Rule: 1900-1963…………………………………………………………..……10

NEWSPAERS FOR WHITE SETTLERS: 1906-1960………………………………19

The Livingstone Mail……………………………………………………………………19
Northern Rhodesian Advertiser………………………………………………………….27
The Northern News………………………………………………………………………32
Central African Post………………………………………………………….…………..41

THE FIRST GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPERS: 1936-1962…………………………47

Mutende – The African Newspaper of Northern Rhodesia: 1936-1952………………...47
The African Eagle: 1953-1962……………………………………………...……………53

PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPER FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965……………..63

African Times: 1957-1958……………………………………………………………….63
African Life: 1958-1961…………………………………………………………………66
Central African Mail Vs The Northern News……………………………………………75
Roman Catholic Church Press Plays Peace-Maker Role…………………………...……77

BACK TO GOVERNMENT NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS: 1963-1975………..….82

Northern News/Times of Zambia: 1963-1975…………………………………………..82
Zambia Daily Mail: 1965-1975……………………………………………………...…108

THE POST-INDEPENDENCE CHURCH PRESS THE ‘LITTLE’ MIRROR: 1972-1983…………

The Mirror and the State…………………………………………………………….….120
The Mirror and the Church …………………………………………………………….129

STATE PRESS STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM: 1975-1983…………………….134

Times of Zambia: 1975-1983………………………………………………………….139
Times Asserts Press Freedom………………………………………………………….140
Editorials Critical of the State………………………………………………………….141
News stories Critical of the State…………………………………………………….....147
Party and Government Reaction……………………………………………….……….148
The Wrangle Between Parliament and the Times………………………………………151


Press in Zambia


Introduction


Press in Zambia
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the seven years it has taken me to research and write this book, I got
much assistance from a lot of people. I ask for forgiveness of those I will fail
to thank personally. Without them this book would not have been written,
my sincere thanks to Professor Emeritus Charles Duncan of the University of
Oregon in the United States of America, whose advice greatly improved the
first six chapters of this book. I will always value the co-operation I got from
the friendly staff of the National Archives of Zambia, the University of Zambia
Library, Times of Zambia Libraries in Lusaka and Ndola, Zambia Daily Mail
Library in Lusaka and the University of Oregon Library where I did part of the
research. Nor will I forget the help the following people I interviewed gave me:
Messrs Richard Hall, Vernon Mwanga, Kelvin Mlenga, Milimo Punabantu, Allan
Wateridge, Sikota Wina, Dunstan Kamanga and Laxon K ameba. I thank Dr Juma
Nyirenda for valuable advice. I am grateful to Messrs Raphael Mulenga and Lee
Musonda for assisting me in my search for information. I thank M Chileshe for
giving me great encouragement during the researching and writing of the
second part of this book. My thanks to Jeanne Neis of the University of Oregon
for her help. I appreciate the toils of Beth Frosland, Margaret Masocha, Ellinah
Chifuwe and Victoria Mphaisha all of whom typed the manuscript at various
stages. My deepest gratitude to my wife Anastazia and my children, Chipo,
Nkole, Lute and Lesa (Twins), Twange, Ziwa and Mutale for bearing my long
absence from hoe patiently. None of the people I have mentioned should be
blamed for any errors or omissions in this book. I alone should shoulder the
blame.

F.P.K
University of Zambia
June 1, 1984


Introduction
ABBRIVIATIONS IN THIS BOOK

A.N.C………………………………………………………..…African National Congress

C.I.A………………………………………………………….Central Intelligence Agency
B.S.A Company………………………………..…………..British South Africa Company
G.N.P………………………………………………...…………….Gross National Product
Federation……………………..…………………..Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
I.P.I………………………………….…………………………International Press Institute
K…………...………………….Kwacha, Zambian Currency equivalent to 1.4 U.S dollars,
1964 prices
………………………….……..Pound Sterling, British Currency, equivalent to K2, 1964
prices Legco……………………………………………………….…………
Council
M.C.C………………………………………………….Member of the Central Committee
M.P………………………………………………………………… Member of Parliament
Lonrho………………….………………….London Rhodesia Mining and Land Company
N.P.P………………………………………..……………………..National Progress Party
PAZA………………………………..……………………….Press Association of Zambia
SAPA…………………………………………………….South African Press Association
SAPULPA…………………………...……………South Africa Pulp and Paper Industries
SPAFIF…………….……………………Southern Province Farmers’ improvement Fund
TANU………………………………….……………………..Tanganyika National Union
U.D.I ………………………..……………………Unilateral Declaration of Independence
U.N …………………………………………………...……………………United Nations
UNESCO……………………………..United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organisation
U.F.P………………………………………………………..………..United Federal Party
UNIP……………………..…………………………..United National Independence Party
U.P.P………………………………………….………………….United Progressive Party
U.S.A…………………………………………………………....United States of America
U.T.H……………………………………………….………University Teaching Hospital
V.I.P…………………………………………………..…………..Very Important Person
ZANC………………………………………………….Zambia African National Congress
ZECCO…………………...……………..Zambia Engineering and Construction Company


Press in Zambia


Introduction
FOREWORD

To an old journalistic warhorse such as myself, the invitation from Francis

Kasoma to write the foreword for his history of the Zambian press proved
quite irresistible. It stirred so many memories, and took me back to the most
exciting ( and , I fancy, the most worthwhile) days of my life.

But before I fall into the temptation to reminisce, let me say how valuable
this project seems to me. The newspapers of any country mirror its social
change, assuming that there is a reasonable degree of press freedom; but as
regards Zambia, those yellowing pages from the past could well be rated as
vital documents upon a nation’s total transformation. The first Newspaper, the
Livingstone Pioneer, appeared on the dusty streets at the effective beginnings
of colonialism. It recorded the advance of white rule, fanning out at the turn of
the century, from the Zambezi to Lake Tanganyika.

Those early colonial newspapers were primitive in style (not to mention racial
attitudes). However, you can chart in their pages the twentieth-century history
of the land that was Northern Rhodesia.

As the decades passed by, the political attitude expressed in editorial columns
became more sophisticated. Yet the basic assumptions of white supremacy
were [Link] press, was the authentic voice of the rulers; the discontent
of the ruled, the black majority, was rarely heard.

Then by the late fifties, we can catch in the newspapers the first murmurings
of change. Fresh voices are heard. Indeed, the very photographs themselves
reflect a recognition that the old, diehard attitudes are dying: black faces appear
in press. (in a small way, I can offer some testimony on the point). In 1957, I
had just arrived on the Copperbelt from London, to edit mine newspapers at
Mufulira – one paper for Europeans, and one for Africans. In my innocence I
began putting photographs in the European Paper that included both races
– and I even named the Africans. The consequences were dramatic, because
the white miners protested angrily at this intrusion into their newspaper, and I
was ordered by the general manger to avoid such ‘provocations.’)

But by 1960, the Press of Zambia-to-be begins to chronicle a revolution, even

it a generally bloodless one. A wave of bolder newspaper has emerged from
the political ferment. Some are even by African, for Africans – the heralds of
the future.

Then came independence. Truly, ‘the past was another country’ – in its name
as well as in its nature. The history of the press runs parallel to the history of
the people

Press in Zambia
A glance through the back numbers for the last twenty years also tells a story:
of the struggles to maintain the integrity of the press, and of the pursuit of
priorities for Zambia’s economic survival.

To maintain the acceptable frontiers of press freedom has always been a tough
fight. As a great editor of The Times of London said, 100 years ago, ‘the duty of
the press is to expose.’ But exposure is the last thing many people in power
desire.

Editors rarely rank very high in a country’s power structure: they can be like
bullets out of a gun. Journalism and speed are indivisible – nobody wants stale
news, any more than they fancy stale bread if fresh is available – so in the
haste to ‘get in on the front page’ the harassed editor is sure to make mistakes
sometimes. That is when an enemy will swoop. If a newspaper makes a mistake,
thousands of people read it; if a carpenter makes a chair with unsteady legs,
only the man who sits on it knows that something has gone wrong.

The newspaper of Zambia have made their mistakes, just as other sectors
of society have erred. They have also paid a price. That is why so many good
Zambian journalists have retired from the battlefield. Some have moved into
business, others into politics (on the principle, maybe, ‘if you can’t beat them
join them’), I sometimes think that some young graduate student might
well do a doctorate on the role of ex-teachers and ex-journalists in the post
independence politics of Africa.

Certainly, there are easier ways of making a living than belonging to the
press. Apart from the risks, there is little prospect of growing really rich. In my
experience, journalists are rarely offered bribes to keep quiet –although as
a very young reporter in England, I was once tempted with a small tip by a
worried clergyman, who wanted me to ‘forget’ a case in which he had been
fine for speeding in his car.

The physical risk of journalism are obvious enough. In some countries, reporters
are thrown into jail as frequently as armed robbers. They are hated by rulers,
despised by professors, and chased by lawyers waving writs.

Yet there is never a shortage of men and women (bold, reckless or irresponsible,
according to your stance),who want to join this profession. They do not mind
being labelled ‘scribblers’. Some become obsessed with a sense of mission.
They are resolved to write ‘all the news that is fit to print’ – to publish and
be damned. Politicians really hate this ‘holier than thou’ attitude’ among
journalists; sometimes one can hardly blame them.

10
Introduction
After all, is journalism really a profession, in the way being a doctor is rated?
Anyone can play the journalistic game – all you need are the abilities to ask
hard questions into a telephone and to hammer the keys of a typewriter.

That may sound as though I am playing the Devil’s Advocate to ‘clear the decks’,
then suddenly turn around and jump to the defense of the press. Yes, I am.
Every society is weakened and made more dull if the fight for press freedom is
lost. Newspaper are a vital part of democracy; it they are allowed to continue
frank reporting, liberty is protected. In my view, reporting is more important
than the right of an editor to air his views in a leading article. Facts are sacred,
but editors are not always possessed of supernatural wisdom – in Zambia or
anywhere else. The best motto is surely ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth.’

After that weighty observation, I shall allow myself the luxury of looking
back on my Zambian newspaper days. For example, I remember the writ that
arrived one day on my desk when I was editing the old African Mail in the early
sixties.

It came from Sir Roy Welensky, the Prime Minister of the Central African
Federation. (Perhaps we deserved it, because we did attack him mercilessly in
those days.) anyway, Nalumino Mundia on behalf of UNIP promised to ‘collect
enough pennies to stretch from one of the country to the other if the Mail
needed legal help.

In the end, Sir Roy Backed down, so Nalunimino’s daring guarantee was never
put to the test.

Then, I recall how we had to print the Times of Zambia for several weeks on
some old supplies of green newsprint had been brought for a sports edition
- a scheme that never came to anything. After we were finally able once again
to print on white, many readers wrote in to complain: they said that the green
was easier on the eyes; others said it burned better when lighting fires; some
readers even claimed that the green was superior for making cigarettes.

To conclude, I might relate one incident to show how easy it is for an editor
to get into water. The rival representatives of ZANU and ZAPU, while in exile
in Zambia, spent a great deal of their time issuing press statements bitterly
denouncing one another. At last, in exasperation, I made an order, as Times
of Zambia editor, that we would print no more of these attacks. In my view,
they were boring, and encouraged violence between the factions - violence
that could be more aimed in different direction. But immediately the paper

11
Press in Zambia
stopped printing these streams of verbal abuse, ZAPU and ZANU were for a
moment united.

They turned on me, and with one voice protested: ‘You are denying us the
freedom of the press!’ to this day, some of them have not forgiven me.

Well, that must be enough of my memories. I should like, once again, to

commend Mr. Kasoma’s researches into this field. They are most valuable and
timely. As the newspaper sellers cry: Read all about it!

Richard Hall.
The Observer,
London, England
March 1984

12
1
Introduction
INTRODUCTION

State takeovers of the press in independent Africa have, in recent years,

become a burning issue both internationally and locally in the great debate of
press and hence, democratic freedom.

In the past decade, international organizations, notably the United Nations,

through UNESCO, have expressed concern over such takeovers.

The “Great Debate” in UNESCO has been between those who, like Max L.
Snijders, saw in the famous Nairobi draft declaration on fundamental principles
governing the use of mass media in strengthening peace and international
understanding and in combating war propaganda and those who, like Kaarle
Nordenstreng, thought this draft declaration was in line with the 1945 UNESCO
Constitution which states in its preamble:

…that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men
that the defense of peace must be constructed; that ignorance of
each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout
the history of mankind of that suspicion and mistrust between the
peoples of the World through which their differences have all too
often broken into war;…..

for these reasons, the States Parties to this Constitution, believing in

full and equal opportunities for education for all, in the unrestricted
pursuit of objective truth, and in the free exchange of ideas and
knowledge and agreed and determined to develop and to increase
the means of communication between their peoples and to employ
these means for the purposes of mutual understanding and a truer
and more perfect knowledge of each other’s lives;…

despite the fact that during the “Great Debate” which ended in a compromise
declaration, UNESCO never specifically and officially referred to State
takeovers of privately-owned mass media, it was obvious that state ownership
of the mass media, or at least control, thereof, was at the heart of discussion

The International Press Institute (IPI), perhaps more than any other organisation,
has repeatedly expressed concern about newspaper nationalizations

 Max L. Snijder IPI Report 12 (December 1976): 5.

Kaarle Nordenstreng, Ibid. 2 (February 1977): 10-11.
Quote from UNESCO Constitution, Italics added.

 see Appendix 1.

13
Press in Zambia
throughout the Third World, but more particularly in Africa. It has pursued this
concern in line with its Constitution whose preamble opens with the words:

World peace depends upon understanding between peoples and

peoples. If peoples are to understand one another, it is essential that
they have good information. Therefore, a fundamental step towards
understanding among people is to bring about understanding
among the journalists of the world.

In accordance with this belief there is established an organisation to

work toward the following objective:

1. The furtherance and safeguarding of freedom of the press, by

which is meant; free access to the new, free transmission of news,
free publication of newspapers, free expression of views.

Accordingly, the IPI has kept track of all recent newspaper nationalizations.
These have been duly announced in its monthly publication, IPI Report, often
with the inevitable conclusion that “press freedom has been erased” in the
countries were nationalizations have occurred.

Apart from these world organizations, a few scholars and observers of the
trend towards nationalization of newspapers in Africa, have written about
the issue. One of the earliest articles was by Richard Hall, “The Press in Back
Africa – How Free is it?” published in 1968. in this article Hall said proliferation
of government or party newspapers was peculiar to Africa. According to him
a concentration upon strictly political factors was not enough for an effective
analysis of the condition of newspapers in Black Africa. There were also crucial
economic, geographic and sociological aspects which he ably enumerated. 
In 1970, William A. Hachten in his article, “Newspaper in Africa: Change or
Decay?” noted a “sharp increase in Government daily papers in Africa.” Like Hall
he blamed “the consolidating tendencies of one-party political or military rule,
with a concomitant suspicion of criticism and demand of conformity; African
mistrust of foreign ownership of the press; the lack of capital combined with
economic risks of the newspaper publication” as being responsible for this

 IPI Report, 12 “Zambia” (December 1975) : 14

 4Richard Hall, “ The Press in Black Africa – How free is it?” Optima, March 1968,
p.13 Mr. Hall is Editor (Men and Matter) of the Financial Times, London. He was a newspaperman in Zambia for
over ten years. He edited Mufurila Magazine, a mine journal was one of the founders of the (Central) African Mail,
Now Zambia Daily Mail, which he edited. He also edited The Northern News/ Times of Zambia.

Mr. Hall has written several books one of which is Zambia, a political history of the country (see bibliography).

He was one of the main interview sources for this work.

14
Introduction
phenomenon. He predicted that the new African government would play an
important role in the ownership and control of the press and other media, but
he was generally more pessimistic about the change than Hall. For Hachten,
the new development had both aspects of change and of decay.
Earlier, Rosalynde Ainslie in her book The Press in Africa (1966), while noting
that governments publishing of newspapers was incompatible with the liberal
view of the press freedom, had observed that the press in Africa was dying but
it was better to have a government newspaper than none at all.
In Africa itself as a whole concern about nationalization of the press has been
expressed by both journalists and opinion leaders. Some African editors
have unreservedly condemned nationalization of the press. Like Ainslie, they
maintain nationalization of the press is incompatible with its freedom. Among
these editors are Lateef Jakande of Nigeria, Joe Rodriguez of Kenya, and Kelvin
Mlenga of Zambia.7


Other editors, however, hold the view that since freedom of the press anywhere
in the World is relative and not absolute, state-owned newspapers are free in
their own right. These editors include Alan Wateridge and Naphy Nyalugwe
both of Zambia.

Perhaps no group has been more outspoken on State takeovers of the press
than Africa’s opinion leaders, mainly politicians and scholars. Almost all the
ruling politicians justify nationalization of the press on the ground that it can
be used as a tool for development and rallying force for the young, fledging
nations. They have been suspicious of privately-owned newspapers serving
the interests of foreign owners. President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and
Kamuzu Banda of Malawi are representatives of this school.

Some African politicians, however, like Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki tolerate an

independent press as a condition sine qua non for democracy.10
 William A. Hachten, “Newspapers in Africa : Change or Decay?’ Africa Report 15 (December 1970): 25-27.

 Rosalynde Ainslie, The Press in Africa (London: Victor Gallancz, 1966), p.150.

 For Jakande and Rodrigues see IPI Report, 10 (December 1974): 11 and IPI Report, 5 (June 1978): 11 April
1978. Mr. Mlenga, who is mention several times in this book joined the Central African Mail in Zambia as
deputy editor in September 1962. he was the newspaper editor from February 1963 to February 1966, a year
after the new Zambian Government nationalized it.

 Alan Wateridge interview, Lusaka, April 1978. at the time of the interview Mr. Wateridge was managing direc-
tor of Zambia Publishing Company, publishers of Zambia Daily Mail, a newspaper he had worked for since the
1960’s. IPI Report, 10 (November 1978): 10

 See Nyerere’s character to the Standard on February 4, 1970 when he nationalized the newspaper, Appendix
II. For Kamuzu Banda see IPI Report, 9 – 10 (September and October): 1

10 IPI Report, 10 (October 1972): 8

11 Ali Mazrui, Violence and Thought (London; Longmans, 1969), pp 272-75.
Mazrui is quoting John Nelson Williams, “The Press and the Printed Word in Africa,” in Overseas Quarterly, 8

15
Press in Zambia

All the above writers and thinkers have tried to explain the problem of
takeovers of the press in economic and political terms. A historical approach
to the problem has been generally lacking.
A suggestion of the historical approach is seen in the book Violence and
Thought (1969) by Ali Mazrui who wrote:

The genesis of African journalism lay in dry official publications of

colonial governments. As one student of history of the press in Africa
put it,

“The press in Africa began with publications owned and or operated

by officials of the British Government. It began in Sierra Leone in 1801
with the publication of The Royal Gazette. Twenty-one years later
Ghana (then the Gold Coast) followed Sierra Leone’s example with
the publication of The Royal Gold Coast Gazette….”

All these then go to illustrate the Adam and Eve of newspapers in

Africa were government gazettes. But history once again indulged her
ironic sense of humor. The medium which had been used by colonial
governments was adopted and adapted by African nationalistic forces
and directed against those governments themselves….. the question
which now arises is whether newspapers in independent Africa are
about to resume their earliest role in the history of colonialism – and
become government gazettes all over again.” 11

Three years earlier, Titus Mukupo, writing on government and the press in
Africa, noted a deepening concern in the West about the relationship between
government and newspapers in independent Africa. It was suspected that the
emergent rulers of Africa’s new nations meant to trap the press in such a way
as to make it subservient to their own selfish interests and that no paper might
ever be accorded freedom of the press as conceived in the West. According
to Mukupo, some African Governments had acquired newspaper outright,
creating a relationship between the Third and Fourth estates entirely foreign
and disturbing to Western journalists. The African perspective on relationship
between governments and press could only be understood in the context of

African history and African priorities. Like Mazrui, Mukupo has noted that
government ownership of newspapers in Africa was not a new practice.

(December 1983): 243

16
Introduction

In Zambia, for example, the first government-owned newspaper was

introduced by the British administration more than 25 year ago.12

The present study takes its cue from Mukupo and Mazrui. It traces the
relationship between government and national newspapers in one African
country-Zambia. its purpose is to show that state ownership and /or control
of national newspapers in Zambia is not a post-independence phenomenon
but was there even in the colonial era. It will evaluate reasons behind state
ownership and/or control of national newspapers throughout the country’s
press history. Suggestions will be given for the future operation of state-
controlled newspapers drawing from historical experience.

“Development” here we mean “events and happenings” rather than “economic

and technological advancement.” The latter meaning will only be considered
in as far as it forms part of history.

“State ownership” will include both partial and complete ownership. It will
also include newspapers subsidizing by the state. The phrase will be used as a
blanket term to accommodate both government and official party ownership
of newspapers. When necessary to distinguish between “government” and
party” ownership, this will be done.

Ownership of newspapers necessarily involves control. But newspapers can

be controlled without being owned. This point is important for the purpose
of the study.

Newspapers are part of the print media commonly referred to as the press a
term which normally include magazines. In this work, however, “press” has the
narrowest meaning of newspapers.

The focus is on national newspapers, i.e., newspapers with national impact

or influence. Local newspapers as well as periodicals with national influence
but which are not newspapers are excluded. Except in one case, only
newspapers published in the country are treated. The one exception is when
the Government subsidized the publication of a newspaper that was outside
the country.

The method of approach is narrative, descriptive and analytical.

The study will trace the development, role, ownership and/or control of
national newspapers in Zambia from the time newspapers started in 1960 to
1983 when the Zambian Government nationalized the last privately-owned

17
Press in Zambia
newspapers concern.

The discussion will center on the relationship between the state and particular
newspapers. This will be done by examining the policies of news.

12 Titus Mukupo, “ The Government and the Press,” Africa Report, II (January
1966): 39-40

papers and showing how the state reacted to these policies.

Part of the research involved studying the editorial opinions and news content
to the newspapers in order to determine their policies on certain issues over
a certain period. The main news stories were read over a considerable period,
in some cases covering the entire life-times of the newspapers. Observations
were made regarding news treatment, in particular news pegs and news play.
The exercise revealed certain view-points regarding how the news papers
looked at the events they reported.

Along with the reading of the main news items, editorials were also scrutinized
over corresponding periods. Their stands on certain selected issues, which
correspond with the topics of the main news items, were noted. Three
categories of stands were used: “For” (editorials which were clearly in favour of
an issue), “Against” (a clearly negative stand), and “Neutral”.
The research which contributed to determining what were the policies of
the newspaper also involved interviews with some of the men who edited
the newspaper in question. E.g., Richard Hall, Alan Wateridge, Kelvin, Mlenga,
Vernon Mwanga, and Milimo Punabantu.

The book is divided into eleven chapters, including the introduction, chapter
2 deals with the geographical characteristics and historical background of
Zambia. Chapter 3 will discuss newspapers for white settlers between the
years 1906-1960.

Chapter 4 discusses the first government newspaper and cover the period
from 1936-1962. chapter 5 looks at privately-owned newspapers for Africans.
It covers the period from 1957 to 1965. this chapter also includes a discussion
on the newspaper war between the White and the Black press and how the
Church played the peace-maker role.

Chapter 6 deals with the transition from a racially divided press to one serving
both races. It examines how the newspapers were finally consolidated into a
unified national press.

18
Introduction
Chapter 7 takes the reader into the post-independence era Church press and
its struggles with the State for press freedom.
Chapter 8 spotlights on how the State press fought to maintain press
freedom.

Chapter 9, the discussion focuses on how the private and semi private
newspapers attempted a come back between the years 1978 and 1983.
chapter 10 is a perspective discussion of the main historical trends of the press
in Zambia as presented in the book.
Finally, chapter 11, wraps up the discussion by looking at what the future holds
for the press in Zambia given the specific historical trends which the book
reveals.

19
2
Press in Zambia
GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORISAL BACKGROUND
OF ZAMBIA

Geography

Shaped somewhat like a kidney bean, Zambia /9formerly Northern Rhodesia)1

lies between latitudes 8 and 18 degrees south and longitudes 22 and 23
degrees east. It covers an area of 291,000 square miles (753,000 square
kilometers).from the southwestern to the northeastern tips of the country the
distance is 1,400 miles.

It is landlocked country on the huge continent of Africa. Zambia is sandwiched

between Angola on the West, Zaire (Belgian Congo) and Tanzania (Tanganyika)
on the north, Malawi (Nyasaland) and Mozambique on the east, and Zimbabwe
(Rhodesia0, Botswana (Bechuanaland) and Namibia (South West Africa) on
the south.2

The relief of Zambia consists mainly of a flat plateau more than 4,000 feet
above sea level which occasionally rises into hills between 5,000 to 6,000 feet.
The highest peak is in the Mafinga Hills on the border with Malawi at 7,000
feet. The lowest parts of the land are the Gwembe and Luangwa Valleys in the
south and the east parts of the country respectively. They are between 1,000
and 2,000 feet above sea level.

The country is drained by two river systems: the Zambezi and the Luapula.
The Zambezi, from which Zambia gets it name, rises in northwestern Zambia,
briefly crosses into Angola and flows back into Zambia with increased speed,
dropping into the world’s largest falls (Victoria) near Livingstone along the
southern border. Below the falls, the river is harnessed into one of the largest
man-made lakes, Kariba, covering an area of 2,000 square miles. The Zambezi
forms the boundary between Zambia and her southern neighbours.

The main tributaries of the Zambezi are the Kafue and the Luangwa. The
latter drains eastern Zambia, joining the Zambezi at Feira on the border with
Mozambique. The Kafue rises north of the Copperbelt curving its way through
swamps southwards then sharply turning eastwards to flow into the

1thoughout this book, the old names of countries and landmarks will normally
appear in parenthesis.

20
Geographical and historical background of Zambia
MAP 1

PART OF AFRICA SHOWING ZAMBIA AND HER NEIGHBOUR

21
Press in Zambia
Zambezi. Near Lusaka, the Kafue too is harnessed into the Itezhi Tezhi dam.
The Luapula drainage system starts from northwestern Zambia where the river
is known as Chambeshi. The Chambeshi flows into Lake Bangweulu, emerging
from it as Luapula. The river then flows west and sharply turns north forming
the border between Zambia and Zaire.

Rainfall ranges from 28 to 60 inches per year, generally decreasing from north
to south.
There are three seasons:
1. the cool dry season (April to August) with temperatures ranging form
20 F to 55 F
2. the hot dry season (August to November) with temperatures between
70 F and 100 F
3. and the warm wet season ( November to April) with temperature
ranging from 60 F to 85 F.

The vegetation of well over half of the country consists of forests and
woodlands of varying density. There are several grasslands and swamps in the
northern, central and western parts of the country.

HISTORY
Earliest Times to 1900

Zambia’s present boundaries date from the down of the colonial era in
early 1900’s but habitation of the territory dates from the early Stone Age.
Archaeologists are still discovering more and more Stone Age sites. Notable
finds include settlement at Victoria Falls, Kabwe (Broken Hill) and Kalambo
Falls near Lake Tanganyika.

From the scant information available, it seems probable that Black people of
the same race as those living in the country today inhabited the territory before
A.D. 1500. between 1500 and 1700, however, the first large scale migrations
of the Luba and Lunda empires from the territory that now covers parts of
Angola and Zaire took place. The migrations, led by powerful chiefs, occupied
much of northern and central Zambia, driving out local peoples.

Between 1800 and 1900, another wave of migrations took place, this time from
South Africa, with new arrivals settling in the eastern and western parts of the
country. By 1900 the groups had settled down to village life and subsisted by
farming, fishing, hunting and collecting wild edibles.

Seventy-three tribes emerged and are still present in Zambia today. They

22
Geographical and historical background of Zambia
include some thirty different dialects but most of them differ so slightly that
knowledge of perhaps six of the principal languages would enable one to
converse with most of the people in the country.

First contacts with White people occurred in the 19th Century with the
opening of trade routes from the east and west coasts of Africa by Arabs and
Portuguese. They traveled through the country looking for mainly ivory, slave
and copper. They opened trading posts like Feira using some of the local
people as middlemen.

The Portuguese and Arab traders were followed in the second half of the
century by British explorers, missionaries and prospectors. Most famous of
these was explorer-missionary David Livingstone, who traveled round the
country for several years beginning in 1850. on one of his trips along the lower
Zambezi he was led by local tribesmen to the giant water fall they knew as
Mosi-O-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders). Livingstone ignored the local name
and called the awesome cataract Victoria Falls, after the reigning Queen of
England. Livingstone died at Chitambo in Central Zambia. The town that later
developed near the Victoria Falls was (and is still) named after him.

Francis Coillard, a missionary of the Paris Missionary Society established one

of the earliest missions in the country at Sesheke in 1885. Five years later he
played a crucial role in persuading Paramount Chief Lewanika to grant the
Lonchner Concession, which gave the chartered British South Africa (B.S.A)
Company of John Cecil Rhodes mineral rights over a vast area of what is
now western Zambia, thereby vaguely bringing it into the British sphere of
influence.

Colonial rule: 1900-1963

In 1891, Lewanika was informed that the protection of the Queen of England’s
government has been extended to his country as he had requested. The
concession was confirmed in due course by the British Government, which
gave the B.S.A Company the responsibility for maintaining peace and order
within the region. But the imperial Government retained the right to supervise
the Company’s activities.

By 1899 the whole territory had come under B.S.A Company rule after the
Company’s concession hunters had obtained concessions from other chiefs
similar to the one signed by Lewanika.

The Company divided the country into two parts for administrative purposes:

23
Press in Zambia
North-Western Rhodesia, with headquarter at Kalomo, and North-Eastern
Rhodesia with headquarters at Chipata (Fort Jameson). The two were
amalgamated into one in 1911 under the name Northern Rhodesia, named
after Cecil Rhodes.3

The administration of the Company continued until 1924 when the Colonial
Office took over control, making Northern Rhodesia a protectorate.

During the period of the Colonial Office Administration, the British Parliament
made laws for the country. Major policies changes were effected through
Orders-in-Council. But matters involving day to day running of the country
were dealt with by the Executive Council and the Legislative Council (Legco)
both of which were presided over by a resident Governor appointed by the
British Monarch.

The executive Council was composed of Civil Servants who counseled the
Governor. Membership of the Legco, came from both Official and Unofficial
(elected members).

3There was another territory south of the Zambezi River also under Company
rule which was called Southern Rhodesia.

Before the colonial office assumed control, Zambia was a poor country
economically. Ironically, despite all the mineral concessions it obtained, the
B.S.A Company did very little mining. Rather it used the country as a source
of cheap labour for its mines in Shaba (Katanga) Province of Zaire, Southern
Rhodesia and South Africa. Thus the company rule was basically an instrument
for economic exploitation.

For its administration, the Company used only a handful of staff whose main
occupation was the collection of taxes from local people whose huts they
often burnt at the least sign of resistance. Such treatment made the Black
indigenous people resent Company rule. So did the few hundred White
settlers, but for different reasons. The Whites hated the Company mainly for
being too strict with its policies on land and mineral rights to the extent that
they could not easily settle anywhere they liked or set up business.

The protectorate period (1924-1964) saw economic and political developments

in the country.

Large copper deposits were located in an area that became (an is still) known
at the Copperbelt.4 Mines were opened and started attracting large numbers

24
Geographical and historical background of Zambia
of local people who sought work in order to be able to afford the taxes. By
1930, there were more than 30,000 Africans employed on the Copperbelt. The
mines also attracted numerous Whites. Many of these Whites were Afrikaans
from South Africa. Others came from Europe and America.5 By 1963 there
were about 40,000 African and about 8,000 Whites working on the Copperbelt
mines.

As already pointed out, the Copperbelt brought together large numbers of

indigenous people from different tribes who for the first time found themselves
working and living together side by side. Consequently, tribal barriers started
cracking.

One of the greatest common experiences of the Black mineworkers was

racial segregation practiced by Whites. Africans grouped together in several
welfare societies and quasi-religious movements to fight for their rights, they
organized strikes. In one such strike in 1935, which nearly paralyzed the mine
plants at Mufulira, Nkana and Luanshya, six strikers were shot dead during
a week-long work stoppage which had been triggered by a similar strike by
White miners who had easily won their pay rise demands.

The Copperbelt soon became not only the industrial center but also the
commercial and business hub of the country. As more mines were opened,
more jobs were created. A large population concentration of both Blacks and
Whites developed in the area. Similar population concentrations grew along
the railway line from Livingstone to the Copperbelt, which had been completed
early in the 1900’s and was part of Cecil Rhodes’ dream of a railway from Cape
(South Africa0 to Cairo (Egypt). Map III shows the population concentrations
as they stood in the 1960’s.

4 See Map II

25
Press in Zambia
MAP II
POPULATION DENSITY

26
Geographical and historical background of Zambia
MAP III
POPULATION CONCENTRATIONS

27
Press in Zambia
Whites, whose population increased steadily between 1924 to 1963, did
everything to entrench their social, political and economic power at the
expense of the more numerous Blacks (see Table 1). Their political leader for
a long time was Roy Welensky, a former locomotive engine driver of South
African descent. Welensky was elected to Legco, in 1935.

The British Government, however, refused to hand over complete power to

the White Minority. It also refused to agree to demands by the same White
minority to amalgamate the territory with Southern Rhodesia and South Africa.
But Welensky did mange to get the British Government’s nod to the idea of
federating the three neighboring territories of Northern Rhodesia, Southern
Rhodesia and Nyasaland into the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The
Federation started in 1953, with Welensky soon taking over as Prime Minister.
The headquarters of the Federation were in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. The
three member countries, however, retained their territorial governments. The
Federation was bitterly opposed by African in Northern Rhodesia for two main
reasons:

1. Northern Rhodesia was exploited by the Salisbury regime as “milk

cow”;
2. and Federation meant perpetuation of White Rule

Table 1
POPULATION OF ZAMBIA, 1924-1975

Races 1924 1926 1927 1963 1968* 1975*

Blacks 1,100,000 1,190,163 1,257,486 3,407,000 4,002,000 5,034,000
Whites 4,182 5,681 7,275 76,000 67,000 65,000

SOURCES:
1. Northern Rhodesia Government/Annual Report for 1924, 1926 and
1927;
2. United States Government, Area Handbook for Zambia (Washington
D.C. U.S Government Printing Office, 1968) P. 65
*Figures based on First National Development Plan estimates.

African nationalism in Zambia emerged in 1948 when the African National

Congress (A.N.C) was formed from the welfare societies. A former teacher,
Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, become its leader in 1951. his general secretary
was another former teacher, Kenneth David Kaunda. The Party agitated for self
government, independence and an end to racial segregation.

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Geographical and historical background of Zambia
Support for the ANC grew like a bush fire among Africans, particularly on the
Copperbelt. By the time Welensky’s Federation came into being in 1953, the
ANC had grown into a national political party and a power to reckon with.
Federation stimulated its growth even more since Africans Now had one more
evil, the Federation, to unite against.

The ANC was split in 1958, when Kaunda formed his own Zambia African
National Congress (ZANC), but this development strengthened rather

than weakened nationalism. Although ZANC was banned soon after it started
and its leaders, including Kaunda, thrown into jail, its successor, the United
National Independence Party (UNIP) proved even more effective. Kaunda took
over its leadership in January 1960 when he was released from prison.

Almost immediately, UNIP grew into a mass party, leaving Nkumbula’s ANC
with few followers. The new Party hatched a ‘Master Plan’ of civil disobedience,
which it stared implementing in the Northern and eastern parts of the country.
The aim was to force the British Government to dissolve the hated Federation
and grant Northern Rhodesia independence.

The plan worked.

The British Government realized that there was need for rapid constitutional
advance for Northern Rhodesia. They also realized that the Federation could
not be held together under opposition from Africans.

In 1961, the Colonial Office proposed a constitution for Northern Rhodesia

which seemed to favour Africans rather than White. Welensky applied pressure
and succeeded in getting the British Government to amend it in favour of
Whites. Africans reacted to the amendment with violence, forcing Britain
to amend the constitution yet again. This version was the famous 15-15-
15 constitution which fell short of universal suffrage. In this constitution 15
Legco-members were to be elected mainly by Blacks, 15 by Whites, and the
other 15 by all the races. Elections were held and UNIP, together with the ANC
captured two-thirds of the Legco seats and formed a coalition Government
with Kaunda as Prime Minister and Minister of Local Government and Social
Welfare.

With a Black Government in Northern Rhodesia (and another in Nyasaland)

Welensky’s Federation was doomed to collapse. It did in 1963. Early in 1964
another election was help in Northern Rhodesia, this time based on universal
adult suffrage. UNIP easily won a decisive majority in the new Parliament. A

29
Press in Zambia
few months later, on 24th October, Kaunda was sworn in ass the president of
the Republic of Zambia.

The new Black Government immediately embarked on development

Programmes more far-reaching and effective than the BSA Company or the
Colonial Office administrations had ever attempted.

A massive education drive was started to provide equal education

opportunities for all, irrespective of race, c or means. This was in contrast to
the racially segregated schools prevailing from 1925 to 1964. Primary and
secondary schools sprang up in nearly every district. The new Government
was clearly in a hurry to educate the masses of the people about 80 percent
of whom could neither read nor write. In 1964 Zambia had only slightly more
than 1,200 Cambridge Schools Certificate holders (persons with full four-year
secondary school education qualification) among its Black population of
nearly 3 ¾ million. University graduates numbered only 100, all of whom had
obtained their degrees abroad, the country having no university of its own. The
Colonial Office Government ad done very little to educate Africans, relying on
missionaries who neither had the funds nor personnel to do the job.

As Table 2 shows, Kaunda’s Government drastically increased school enrolment

in both primary and secondary schools. Technical schools and teacher
training colleges were also built, the latter spreading out into the rural areas.
The University of Zambia was built and opened in 1967, offering degrees in
humanities and social sciences, engineering, medicine, law and education.

TABLE 2
SCHOOL ENROMLMENT IN ZAMBIA, 1964 –1969

Type of
1964 1965 1965 1967 1968 1969
School
Primary 378,639 410,150 473,432 539,353 608,893 645,679
Secondary 13,871 17,187 24,005 34,139 42,388 48,136
SOURCE: Central Statistics Office, Lusaka.

Attached to the University was a correspondence studies wing for adult

working students.

The UNIP Government also diversified and expanded the country’s

communication system away from the traditional southern routes. A crisis
across in 1965, when Ian Smith, the leader of the White minority in Southern
Rhodesia, unilaterally declared independence (UDI) from Britain. Zambia

30
Geographical and historical background of Zambia
opposed the declaration in principle, holding that Southern Rhodesia, like
Zambia had a right to a majority Black Government. Smith retaliated by closing
the border, thus cutting Zambia off from its vital railway link with the South
African and Mozambique ports. For a time Zambia was forced to airfreight its
major imports and exports, mainly oil and copper respectively. As one solution
to the need for new routes, a multi-million Kwacha oil pipeline more than
1,000 miles long was built by Italians from Ndola on the Copperbelt to the
Tanzania port of Dar-es-Salaam. A new K334 million railway was also built to
link the same port with Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia. A highway system
of surfaced roads was built to link all the provincial centers except Mansa
in Luapula Province. The international Airport in Lusaka and other airfields
elsewhere were constructed at enormous costs.

As a consequence of this massive effort, the country’s economy had picked up

by the end of the 1960’s, only to start declining in the first half of the 1970’s,
largely because of international conditions – principally a general worldwide
slump, high prices for oil and low copper prices on the World metal market.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Zambia’s African Government has been
the restoration of honour and pride to the Black people who had lost their self-
respect during the colonial era. Soon after independence, racial segregation in
all spheres of life was legally abolished and was effectively ended several years
later. People of all races, Blacks, Whites and Asians, now live harmoniously as
members of the human race.

Kaunda’s belief in the oneness of mankind was largely responsible for his
propounding of the Philosophy of Humanism, which he launched at the

UNIP national council in 1967. it become officially the country’s political

philosophy in 1974 when Zambia become a one-party State.

Zambian Humanism has its roots in the inclusiveness of traditional African

society which was characterized by the extended family in which people
helped one another as members of one big family. Humanism puts man at
the center of all activity. But man does not exist for the State. Rather the State
and all similar social structures exist for man, his tools for building a better
life. Herein lies the difference between Humanism and Communism, which
regards man as a cog in the giant state machine.

Humanism is not capitalism either. It abhors the individualism, exploitation and

selfishness often found in capitalistic societies where the concept of family is
too narrow to fit the African pattern. Humanism respects hard work, however,
and holds that diligence should be rewarded and laziness discouraged. It

31
Press in Zambia
respects and welcomes individuals who grow rich in society through sheer
hard work rather than exploitation of their fellow men.

The State is the custodian of Humanism. It takes such steps as are necessary
to prevent human exploitation in any form. One way of achieving this has
been the nationalization by the State of key elements of the economy. In the
1968 Mulungushi reforms the State sought to encourage the emergence of
African businessmen by restricting retail trade outside and small contracts to
Zambian citizens. It also acquired majority shares in two big breweries. In 1969,
the two mining companies were nationalized. In 1972, the restriction to retail
trade extended to towns and more industries were taken over.

Humanism is constantly inculcated by the mass media. It is also taught in all

formal educational institutions. All civil servants are required to be conversant
in it. A special wing of Government in charge of national guidance has been
set aside to spearhead the implementation of the philosophy.

UNIP has ruled the country since its attainment of independence, thereby
making Zambia one of the stable countries in Africa politically. By 1983,
UNIP was still a mass party rather than one for the elite. It accommodated
members with diverse opinions on issues. But it had clearly defined leadership
code which forbade leaders from using their positions to amass wealth at
the expense of the common man. Under the leadership code, no leader was
allowed to receive two salaries. The code also restricted the amount of land
property leaders could own. Several top party leaders have been suspended
or fired for violating the code.

The State has also established an ambudsman office to which all citizens
channel their complaints on misuse of power.

Since assuming power UNIP has experienced only one split. This was in 1969
when former Vice President Simon Kapwepwe broke off to form his own short-
lived United Progressive Party (UPP). Following widespread violence, UPP was
banned. Several years later in 1973, Nkumbula and his ANC followers

joined UNIP, a reunification that seemed to offset and compensate for the UPP
Breakaway.

Zambia is ruled by an executive President, who is also the president of UNIP. He

is initially elected by the UNIP general conference, which then presents him to
the nation as the sole candidate for the Presidency. The voters have the option
of confirming or rejecting him by simply marking “Yes” or “No” on the ballot.

32
Geographical and historical background of Zambia
Other leaders include the Secretary General of the Party, who is the party’s chief
administrator as well as deputy head of state. There is also a Prime Minister. The
Law-making body is Parliament which consists of 125 elected members, ten
nominated and a Speaker. The party’s Central Committee is the policy-making
body. Elections for the Presidency and Parliament are held every five years. By
1983, Kaunda had been re-elected President five times but had turned down
suggestions that he be made life-president, saying the people must reserve
the right to vote him out it they so wished.

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Press in Zambia
NEWPAPERS FOR WHITE SETTLERS: 1906-1960

It is now generally accepted that the first newspaper ever published in Zambia
was Livingstone Pioneer in 1906.11 it seem to have been a weekly. Little is known,
however, about the Pioneer apart from the fact that it was partly hectograph
and partly print. It was published only for a few months in the newly founded
town of Livingstone which became the capital of the then North-Western
Rhodesia in 1907.12 its owner and publisher was W. Tranter.

The Livingstone Mail

Tranter’s newspaper enterprise no doubt inspired Leopoid Frank Moore, a

politically ambitious chemist, to start a rival newspaper in the same year called
the Livingstone Mail.

A typical issue of The Mail at this stage was a six-page tabloid. Page one was
totally reserved for advertisements, with the publisher’s own Moore Chemist
taking the coveted “ears”. It appears Moore financed The Mail from the profits
of this chemist. Advertising we generally heavy. Issues with 90 per cent
advertising space and only 10 percent news were not unusual. In addition
to the advertising of the small business which the town’s few White settlers
had set up, the newspaper also carried a number of official government
advertisements.13

The news column followed no particular pattern. News, opinion, gossip as well
as uninformed speculations were all splashed everywhere, sometimes within
the same article. It was raw journalism. News stories were often written in a tall-
tale manner that left the curious reader with a lot of questions unanswered as
the following example shows:

Fisherman Dives After Hooked Fish

A somewhat unusual fishing story has come to light. A party fishing

at Katombora over the weekend was suddenly disturbed when a
member of the party dived overboard in the middle of the Zambezi
and commenced to swim after some object in the river. Several
crocodiles had been observed in the vicinity if the boat but this
11 L. H Gann, A History of Northern Rhodesia (Salisbury: National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. 1963), P
140 footnote.
W. V. Brelsford, Ed., Rhodesia and Nyasaland Salisbury: Federal Government, 1960), P 158.

12 Gann adds that the Livingstone Pioneer was superseded by the Livingstone Pioneer and Advertiser in the
same year, 1960

13 3the population of White settlers in Livingstone in 1940 was 227, according to Gann, page 140.

34
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
did not deter the intrepid fisherman from achieving his object. The
reason for this somewhat rash act was eventually discovered. The
member concerned hooked a fish but had the misfortune to break
his line near the float. The fish thereupon went its way with hook, a
small piece of line and the float. The fisherman was not to be denied
his catch. After a fairly long swim he at last managed to grab the float,
made for the rapids and triumphantly landed a nice bream weighing
three and half pounds.14

Sports news and social titbits of the small White settlers community were
featured prominently. Wedding reports abounded. The wedding news was so
detailed that a list of gifts and the donors was always published. The names of
White settlers coming into the town as well as those leaving, even temporarily
were published.

But The Mail never ran any stories about Africans unless they were of direct
concern to the Whites. Considerable space was devoted to news from outside
the territory, particularly Britain and South Africa. In a regular feature, “the
London Daily of Events,”White settler were informed of social events in London,
almost half the globe away. From South Africa, the paper carried parliament
reports regularly and in detail.

The Mail was clearly a newspaper for the White settlers. Editorially, it was their
voice. Its editorial were written in the collective “we” which often referred to
the settler community in Livingstone. On race, it consistently stood for racial
segregation, once declaring:“The races can never mix, they are divided as East
is from West.15

For The Mail, Blacks were dirty people whom Whites were to keep away from.
The paper warned the settlers to“beware of the danger of leaving your children
in the care of dirty natives.”16 it called on the public health department not
to permit “dirty Africans to sell dirty milk.”17 Blacks were loafers and criminals
whom the Government was supposed to clear off Livingstone streets for the
safety of the Whites.18 For The Mail it was unthinkable that Blacks could be
elevated to the status of political equality with Whites.19 It, therefore, opposed
14 The Livingstone Mail, 24 October 1949, p.5

15 5Ibid, 10 January 194

16 Ibid. 8 July 1949.

17 Ibid. 1 August 1949

18 Ibid. 27 February 1953, and 30 September 1949

19 Ibid. 25 August 1953

35
Press in Zambia
any pronouncements and policies that suggested this equality. It once
observed:

No colour bar to civilized Africans says Nigerian Governor! Thank

heavens ours are not civilized but it won’t be long before the socialist
Labour Government forces us to do the same here!20

Its main fear was that the new British Labour Government would concede
political power to the Blacks who were of Course deemed not fit to rule.21It
criticized the Labour Government for its “lavish” spending on Africans to
make friend with them and give them independence at the expense of the
forgotten settler.”22 It opposed that Government move to help Northern
Rhodesia Blacks set up trade uinions.23 It attacked the Governor of Northern
Rhodesia for suggesting that White farming was complementary to that of
Blacks.24 It accused the Northern Rhodesia Government of trying to impress
Russia with “how well it treated Africans with the expensive programme of
Africa development while neglecting European interests.”25 Yet ironically
and somewhat naively, after having thus compounded the White/Black
racial problem, The Mail called on Christianity to “help us solve the colour
problem.”26

The Mails stand on what form of government was suitable for the new colony
of Northern Rhodesia was equally outspoken. It never failed to find fault
with the B.S.A Company administration. It accused it of being unstable and
interested only in making money.27 The paper wanted the White in Northern
Rhodesia to be independent and not politically linked with their kith and kin
in the rest of southern Africa. At one time it argued in a full-page editorial:

The Livingstone Mail is for a British Colony, constitutional government,

progress, freedom and fairplay, and within these limits is prepared to
further the policy that will be of greatest benefit to the settlers.28

20 Ibid. 3 April 1947

21 Ibid. 25 April 1947

22 Ibid. 8 August 1947

23 Ibid. 11July 1947

24 Ibid. 15 August 1947

25 Ibid. 16 May 1947

26 Ibid. 5 May 1947

27 Ibid. 31 August 1912, and 5 April 1913

28 Ibid. 30 March 1912

36
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
Later it supported domination status for the Northern Rhodesia and called on
Britain to give the White in the territory sself-gevernment.29

On the question of Federation and/or amalgamation with Southern Rhodesia

and Nyasaland The Mail was inconsistent. While it preferred amalgamation to
the idea of making Northern Rhodesia a Black man’s country,30 it later held the
75 percent of the White settlers were against amalgamation and wanted self-
government for Northern Rhodesia.31 again, while the paper supported the
call for Federation by Godfrey Huggins, and Roy Welensky,32 it called on the two
men, sometimes later, not to rush Federation but to hold a referendum (among
Whites) in the three territories.33 A few months later, it declared that the talk by
Welensky and his fellow federalists were ranting of what was ostensibly a self-
seeking minority.34 The Mail compared the pending Federation to an unknown
evil, declaring:

We feel that it is better to walk with the devil we know than the one
we don’t know.35

Yet still the paper urged the White settlers to read the federal White Paper
and “interpret it to your un-understanding cookboy (Blacks) to support it,
“36claiming that that Black opposition of Federation was because of mass
hypnosis.37 Whites in Southern Rhodesia who did not support Federation were
called ostritches.38 But as the Federation drew nearer, The Mail went all out to
support it and never looked back.39

The circulation of The Mail, like that of most early newspapers in Zambia can
hardly be tabulated as sources are scarce. The figures given in Table 3 are
approximate. They were compiled from various sources, mainly Government
reports. The figures for most of the year were not available from these
sources.
29 Ibid. 4 February 1947, and 2 July 1948

30 Ibid. 20 June 1947

31 Ibid. 3 September 1948

32 Ibid. 5 November 1948

33Ibid. 4 February 1949

34 Ibid. 10 June 1949

35Ibid. 25 February 1949

36 Ibid. 10 February 1953

37 Ibid. 28 April 1953

38 Ibid. 3 March 1953

39 Ibid. 13 March and 14 April 1953

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TABLE 3
CIRCULATION OF THE LIVINGSTONE MAIL

Year Circulation Year Circulation

1906-1923 not available 1930-1939 not available
1924-1927 600 each year 1940 2000
1929 775 1941-1968 not available
1929-1934 7000 each year

Population figures of White settlers in the county include the following:

1924 5,681
1926 7,275
1952 43,000
1962 73,000 30

Thus it can be seen that The Mail had a rather poor circulation. It must have
circulated mainly in Livingstone and the immediate neighborhood. Between
1924-1926, for example, there were more than 7,000 White settlers in the
country but The Mail had a circulation of only 600.40 most of the settlers read
newspaper from outside the country, especially for Southern Rhodesia. In 1925,
for instance, 392,080 newspapers from outside were received into the country.
The figures from 1926 and 1927 were 401,340 and 605,592 respectively41 The
situation continued like this for quite a long time.

In 1939, Northern Rhodesia information officer K.G. Bradley, in his report to

the Secretary of the State for information in London, gave The Livingstone
Mail’s circulation as 2,000. he said it was one of the two European papers in the
territory that “would be of use as a channel for communication matter even
though its circulation is limited.” Bradley noted that the paper represented.

views of its proprietor, L.F. Moore, as an elected member of the Legislative

Council42

Northern Rhodesia Government records do not mention any friction between

The Livingstone Mail and the Government either during the era of the B.S.A
Company administration or after the Colonial office declared the territory a

40 The figures are taken from Northern Rhodesia General Reports of the respective years

41Ibid

42 Northern Rhodesia, Ministry of Information, “Replies to Questionnaire Contained in Enclosure to Secretary

of Stat’s Circular Secret Dispatch of 15th May 1939,” Information file Vol. 1 Part 2 Sec 1/1757, p. 18, Paragraph No.
38 National Archives of Zambia Lusaka.

38
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
Protectorate in 1924. regarding the former period, The Mail, whose proprietor
had earned himself the bitter hostility of the Chartered Company even before
he came to Northern Rhodesia,43 must have been tolerated by the B.S.A
Company administration. But it does not seem attempts were made to muzzle
the paper. The censorship proclamation of 1914 was clearly aimed at lessening
war-time rumours and was not meant to gag The Livingstone Mail, although it
was the only paper published in the territory at the time. This is the conclusion
one arrives at from the opening sentence of that proclamation which stated:

No person shall communicate to any other person any untrue

intelligence, rumour, report, or information unless the person so
communicating has reasonable grounds to believing such intelligence,
rumour, report, or information to be true44

Rumours again worried the colonial Government during the Second World
War. In 1940, the Government made effort to give Africans what it regarded as
correct information about the war. The information was channeled through
a newspaper for Africans known as Mutende which was specifically started
for the purpose. Later, the Government started broadcasting to the Africans
when the first radio station was opened in 1941, again mainly to give Africans
what it regarded as the true facts about the war. The Government propaganda
was aimed at counteracting information put out by the Germans in East Africa,
where Africans in Northern Rhodesia were conscripted to fight.

Government concern about rumours circulating among Africans was expressed

in its official newsletter. It stressed that in a country like Northern Rhodesia
were there was a large African population, it was particularly dangerous to
allow rumours to circulate. The newsletter went on:

It is difficult enough in any case to keep the urban Africans correctly

informed about the war situation, but the task becomes almost
impossible when people repeat to their houseboy or labourers
(Blacks) garbled versions of the news, their own opinions, or
interesting rumours… All the news is given in Mutende and in the
Africa broadcasts. Any African who is given access to these two sources
of news can be sure not only of hearing the truth, be the news good
or bad, but also of hearing adequate explanations without which he

43 Gann, A History of Northern Rhodesia, p. 138, Writes: “In 1898 he (Moore) went into business with his
brother-in-law at Bulawayo and took a prominent part in the campaign against the introduction of Chinese
Labour, earning bitter hostility from the Chartered Company.”

44 Northern Rhodesia, His Excellency the High Commissioner of Southern Africa, B.S.A. Company, Zambia
National Archives, Control of Dissemination of News-War with Austria Proclamation. See Appendix III.

39
Press in Zambia
could not hope properly to understand it….45

But there was no official declared press censorship during the entire period
of the Second World War, unlike the situation during the First World War.46
Generally, the Government seemed to be happy with the performance of the
press, judging from the tone of remarks like the following:

Relations with the press continue to be excellent. There is no Press

censorship as such and none is needed. By written agreement editors
accept the few directives which have been passed on to them and in
general use a reasonable discretion.47

There is no evidence anywhere suggesting that either the B.S.A Company

administration or the Northern Rhodesia Protectorate Government were
embarrassed about The Mail’s racist stance. On the contrary, they seemed, at
least from The Mail’s point of view, to act on some of the (racial) suggestions by
the newspaper like rounding-up all Blacks found on Livingstone streets. Thus
on 27 May 1948, The Mail boasted:

Our recent leading article calling attention on the town’s pavements

and by-ways by African loafers produced an immediate response
from the police department, and efficiently and silently ---there was
a touch of magic about it, for not even the keenest observer saw how
the work was done – the nuisance (emphasis added) was practically
eliminated.48

There are three possible explanations why the Northern Rhodesia

Government did not at first show any concern about The Livingstone Mail’s
racist policy. First, the Government regarded The Mail as a newspaper for White
settlers. Even if Blacks were to lay their hands on it, only a handful of them were
expected to be able to read since the rate of literacy among the indigenous
people was extremely low. Hence The Mail’s racist sentiments never seemed
to pose any danger of inciting Blacks to disturb law and order.

Second, although The Mail was until 1935 the only newspaper published in
Northern Rhodesia, it had, as we have seen, a very low circulation and impact.
The most widely circulated newspaper in the country, and perhaps the most
45 35Newsletter No. 25, Information Department, Lusaka, 25 June 1940, pp.1-2.

46 But all news published in the Government newspaper, Mutende, as we shall see later, was censored

47 37Northen Rhodesia, Information Office, “ Progress Report in the year 1st July 1943 to 30th June 1944,” Infor-
mation file Vol. 11 Part 1 Sec. 3/134, National Archives of Zambia, Lusaka.

48 38The Livingstone Mail, 27 May 1948, editorial.

40
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
influential, was the Bulawayo Chronicle published in Southern Rhodesia. The
Government of Northern Rhodesia maintained very close contact with this
newspaper although it published outside the country.49
Third, the Protectorate Government obviously just left The Mail to “publish and
be damned” in the traditional libertarian British style of freedom of Press.

Northern Rhodesian Advertiser50

When the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser started on 9 February 1935, it was

not the first newspaper to be published in the Copperbelt. Neither was it the
second newspaper to be published in the country as a whole. This double
distinction belonged to Copperbelt Times, a weekly newspaper that had
started in Chingola on 18 March 1932 and was still being published when
the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser came out in Ndola. Copperbelt Times, a
brainchild of two miners --- E.C Wyterd and E. B. Hovelmeier --- ran for eleven
years until it was suspended by The Northern News in 1943, a paper that will
be dealt with in the next section. Copperbelt Times appears to have been a
channel of communicating local gossip and social news of White miners
around the mine camps. Its part-time publisher seems to have kept it at a
low key as a newspaper. It is remarkable that both the Government and the
contemporary newspaper, namely The Livingstone Mail and the Northern
Rhodesian Advertiser, completely ignored the existence of the Copperbelt’s
first newspaper. In the official general annual reports the Government
mentions Copperbelt Times only twice, in 1933 and in 1934 respectively, when
the newspaper’s circulation is given as 500 copies for each year.51 Official
Government reports and memoranda between 1906 and 1942, apart from
the above two exceptions, do not even mention Copperbelt Times at all. They
mention The Livingstone Mail and the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser as
“the only European newspaper” published in Northern Rhodesia during this
period.

In the same vein, the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser in its very first editorial
on 9 February 1935, ignored Copperbelt Times by referring to the Copperbelt
as “lately (being) without a newspaper,” even though at this time Copperbelt
Times had been in existence for three years.
49 A letter by G. Berelsford, Northern Rhodesia Chief Secretary introducing information officer Harry Franklin
to the editor of the Bulawayo Chronicle, Sydney A. Veats, 1 June 1942, Sec. 3/134, Vol. 11 Part 1, National
Archives of ZAMBIA, Lusaka, reads: “Mr. Franklin) will… give you as much material as possible of the kind you
want concerning the activities of the Government and provide you provide you even with information not for
publication to serve as background and to keep you in touch with the affairs in this country.”

50 This newspaper is sometime erroneously referred to as Northern Rhodesia Advertiser

51 In 1932 the Annual General Report (also called the Blue Book) mentions a newspaper, Ndola Times, whose
circulation it gives as 200. it is unlikely that Copperbelt Times was at first called Ndola Times because the first
issue of Copperbelt Times was published in Chingola and not in Ndola more than 70 miles away.

41
Press in Zambia

This book too will not deal with Copperbelt Times but not by choice or
because it has been largely ignored. On the contrary, the fact that it existed for
eleven years continuously highly suggests that it was a newspaper of some
consequence, well deserving treatment in this book. The only reason for not
discussing Copperbelt Times is that this researcher did not find copies of it in
the National Archives of Zambia, nor does the Times of Zambia library hold a
single issue of its ancestral newspaper.52

The Northern Rhodesian Advertiser was established and edited by a certain F.

Mackenzie. The operating company was Northern Rhodesia Advertiser Limited.
It is not certain whether Mackenzie owned all the shares. What is certain is that
it was a local and not foreign company.

The ownership of the Advertiser, unlike that of The Livingstone Mail, was not
proclaimed. The publication seem not to have been a one-man newspaper like
The Mail. It undertook to accommodate all points of view, as stated in its first
editorial:

The Northern Rhodesian Advertiser will pursue an independent

policy. Our pages will open for opinions of every kind – the farmer, the
industrial worker, the business, the civil servant, the miner, the mining
companies, the churches – in short, everyone who desires to reach
the public of the district (Copperbelt) will find an open forum.53

A typical issue of the Advertiser ran to ten tabloid pages. For the first twelve
years page one was entirely reserved for advertisements. Issues usually carried
well over 60 percent advertising space. News from around the Copperbelt,
which filled the bulk of the news hole, was classified according to towns.

Thus there was “News for Ndola,”“News from Chingola” and so on until all the
five major towns that made up the then Copperbelt were covered. The “News
from …” columns contained White settler social titbits spiced with gossip.
The inevitable “News from London”, as well as one or two letters to the editor,
were never missing. The early issue never carried photographs with the result
that the pages were a mass of grey vertical blocks of print. Regular features
included the “Balbus” chit-chat column called Federal Notes”, a write-up for the
Federation written by the paper’s advertising manger (and most probably a
shareholder) R. Olds.

52 42The Times of Zambia superseded The Northern News which in turn superseded Copperbelt Times.

53 43Norther Rhodesian Advertiser, 9 February 1935.

42
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
One of the letters to the editor plunged the paper into lively debate and later
forced it to define its policy. Part of the letter which was published on 2 March
1935 ran as follows:

…What I want very humbly to suggest is that there is a type of

popularity you will be better without.

While awaiting your promised native policy for the North we have
been treated to an exhibition of anti-native panic, harmful to your
readers, Black and White alike. The European who cannot hold his
own or cannot educate his son to hold his own or cannot educate
his son to hold his own with the semi-raw natives of N. Rhodesia
should not be living in Africa at all. It is the English-man’s doubt about
himself, which lead him so easily to believe that he is being victimized
by Jews, Americans, Dutch, Dagos or Bantu. The proof of pudding is in
the eating not in description. We shall never prove our superiority by
simply asserting it or by legislating to safeguard it……

Then once more the old Amalgamation bogey so powerfully

pleaded in the name of the people by the few disgruntled Whites.
It is admittedly a good stick with which to belabour exactly what
Amalgamation means. It is good plank in the agitator’s platform.
What does this blessed word mean? That a handful of Whites believe
that this vast protectorate is at their disposal; that the present
artificial party system in vogue at Salisbury would be a better form
of government for us: that we have sufficient confidence in the Hon.
Gentlemen we send to Livingstone (the capital of Northern Rhodesia)
to send them a few hundred miles further south with vast greater
power to govern the north….

Then four Federation. No one wants to stop it and a little obstruction

may make it grow, we all like a spice of martyrdom. But who are these
White workers? Am I one? The plain truth is that the Proletariat in
this country is Black. We have but a few downtrodden, underpaid
and helpless Whites up here. If your Federation is out to protect the
White lorry driver at twenty shillings a month it must fall of hard and
unpalatable economic facts Mr. Editor, with an enlightened native
policy (emphasis added) the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser could
sweep the board. We have a million and a quarter Africans, over-taxed
and unrepresented eager to learn yet scarcely taught. Cheerfully and
without complaint they make life possible and profitable for us. The
men and editors who would serve the North should aim at enlarging

43
Press in Zambia
rather than restricting the possibilities of life for those in whose land
we live.

Wilfrid F.P Ellis

Ndola, Feb. 1933.54

The Advertiser replied to the issue raised in this and other subsequent letters
with a clear-cut policy pronouncement. The editorial headed “Our Native
Policy” read:

…We talk and read a great deal about the menace of the native as
cheap labour, the educating and training of the native, the Native
Fear Complex, the future of the Whites, the elimination of the White
worker in the near future owing to the policy which is being carried
out in teaching the native trades, all these thoughts are natural to the
person who wishes to settle in this country and bring up a family.

We state boldly that there is some cause for this Native Fear Complex.
Where you have a Government whose policy is to educate and
advance the native, to train him to trades and who boldly states that
this is being done so that they may take their places on the Copper
Mines, and where you have large employers of labour who favour
the native more than the Whites, the simple reason is that they can
see in a few years the native will take the place of the Whites and at
a very reduced wage, thus assisting them to pay large dividends to
the shareholders. If the skilled native would receive the same rate of
pay as the White worker, then we should not have this Native Fear
Complex.

The Government policy is, to our mind, one of exploitation. The

native we agree is overtaxed. His tax here on the Copperbelt is 12/6
per annum. Other places we understand it is 10/6. this amount is
excessive and out of all proportion to his earnings, which range from
18 per annum. This he cannot pay unless he comes here. Is that the
reason why we have such a surplus of unemployed natives on the
Copperbelt?

What are these natives to do?

54 Ibid. 2 March 1935, p.5

44
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
They cannot get work to earn money, and the only alternative is to
steal. Hunger and necessity often drives him to a life of crime and he
becomes a nuisance, not only to the European but to his own people
as well.

So the only solution is to advocate a policy of partial segregation

(emphasis added), when those natives can be gathered up and sent
into Native Reserves where they will be allowed to develop and
taught trades, farming, etc., and where they can compete against
each other and not enter into competition with the Whites, as all that
they produce will be consumed by the native.

We are sure the native would welcome this kind of life to the present
one….55

The Advertiser followed this policy to the letter throughout its twenty-year
lifetime. It was the spokesman of White settler interests. It refused to take
advice from people like Ellis of adopting an enlightened native policy. In
its view, an African was to be left where he was economically, socially and
politically vis-à-vis his White master. He was never to be allowed to compete
with the White man in jobs for fear he would flood the job market and leave
the White man jobless. The paper held that an African was “a child” who was to
be treated as such. But ironically, the Advertiser refused to accept the principle
of a Protectorate Government for the African. It asked:“Who is being protected
and from whom?”56

The Advertiser maintained consistent support for the Federation of Rhodesia

and Nyasaland. It campaigned for it. It exhorted, praised and encouraged Roy
Welensky, the Federation’s architect. Never even once did it criticize him as
its contemporary, The Livingstone Mail, sometimes did. It hailed Welensky’s
return from the London Federal talks and called him a great negotiator. It
impatiently asked the British Colonial Office when Federation was going to
come. It scoffed at Whitehall for suggesting that they intended one day to
give independence to Blacks in Northern Rhodesia.57 its early enthusiasm
for amalgamation, however, seems to have cooled off as the reality of the
Federation become closer.

The Advertiser repeated criticized the territorial Northern Rhodesia

Government on various issues, such as the appointing of members to the
55 Ibid. 16 March 1935

56 Ibid. 24 September 1949, and 2 December 1950

57 Ibid. 28 August 1948, 20 August 1949, 17 December 1949, and 18 November 1950

45
Press in Zambia
Legco instead of letting them be elected by White voters. The Advertiser
dubbed the Government a farce.58

Government’s reaction was indifferent. There is no record of Government

taking exception to the newspaper’s criticisms. It there was any such reaction,
it was unofficial. The record does show that the Government apparently had
higher regard for the Advertiser than for The Livingstone Mail. In one of the
information officer’s reports to the Secretary of State in London, the Northern
Rhodesia Government referred to the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser as an
“independent” paper. In the same report The Mail, as we have seen above, was
said to “represent views of the proprietor as an elected member of Legislative
Council.”59

The Northern News

Zambia’s national press proper had its beginning with the founding of The
Northern News in 1943. Several years later, the newspaper also become the first
one in the country to be owned by foreign company based outside Northern
Rhodesia. For more than 16 years, from January 1953 to 15 July 1969, The
Northern News was the only daily in the country. Throughout its checkered
history, The Northern News, later superseded by the Times of Zambia, was the
country’s oldest and most influential newspaper. For these reasons, a more
detailed background will be given about the founding of this newspaper
than any of the others dealt with in this work. It is important to examine the
role the colonial Government played in setting up this newspaper. It is a key
factor in understanding the relationship between The Northern News and the
Northern Rhodesia Government.

To state that The Northern News was merely the new name of the old
Copperbelt Times, given to it when Wykerd and Hovelmeier moved their
presses from Chingola to Ndola (having been joined by a third partner, Roy
Welensky), is a gross understatement.560 So is the assertion that Welensky
started the newpaper.61

58 Ibid. 2 March 1935

59 See page 42, footnote 32.

60 In an unsigned article headlined “Goodbye to The Northern News” The Northern News, 30 June 1975, p.1,
it was stated: “But ignoring the depression, Mr. E.C. Wykerd and E.D. Sic Hovelmeier, partners in a Chingola in
March 1932. eleven years later they moved to Ndola and changed the title to The Northern News. By that time
prominent politician Mr. Roy Welensky had put some capital into the newspaper….”
See also W.D Gale The Rhodesian Press (Salisbury: Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company. Ltd., 1962), p.188

61 Rosalynde Ainslie. The Press in Africa (London: Victor Gollancz, 1966), p.93

46
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
Figure

47
Press in Zambia
Northern Rhodesia’s first truly national newspaper had a more complicated
birth. Many hands were involved including those of Government. Here is the
story.

On 1 May 1942, the Northern Rhodesia Government proclaimed Emergency

Powers Control Regulation No. 110 which, among other things, prohibited
publication of any new newspaper, unless exempted by the Director of Civil
Supplies. The order was signed by Acting Chief Secretary Keith Trucker. Its
purpose was to conserve newsprint which was becoming scarce during World
War II.

Sometime in mid-1942, Messers, Wykerd and Hovelmeier wrote a

memorandum to the government in which they proposed an intention to
start The Northern News, an independent newspaper whose policy was to be “
furtherance of the war effort and, maintenance of amicable relations between
all sections of the community.”They estimated the paper initially to be 24 pages
of 11” by 7” size with a circulation of about 3,500. they calculated that the paper
would consume 11/2 to 2 tons of newsprint per month.62 The memorandum
was delivered to Financial Secretary K. Tucker63 by Welensky, who at this
time was a prominent politician as leader of both the Labour Party and the
Unofficial Members in Legco. It is interesting to note that although Welensky
delivered the memorandum, he was not named in it as one of the would-be
proprietors of the proposed newspaper. On the contrary, the memorandum
explicitly stated the proprietors were to be Wykerd and Hovelmeier.

On 9 September 1942, Welensky addressed the following note to Tucker on an

official Northern Rhodesia Government letterhead:

Dear Mr. Tucker,

Sorry to bother you but I would be grateful if you would advise me as

soon as possible the position regards paper we want to get on with
it.

Kind regards
Sincerely,
Roy Welensky64

63 The memorandum was undated and was not addressed to any specific Government official. See Appendix IV

63 This is the same Tucker who issued Emergency Powers Control Regulation No. 110 of 1942 referred to
above in his capacity as Acting Chief Secretary.

64 Roy Welensky to Keith Tucker, 9 September 1942, Sec 3/134 Vol. 11 Part 1, National Archives of Zambia, Lusaka

48
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
The “we” suggest that Welensky’s interest was considerably more than that
of a message-bearer. Welensky’s note prompted some action by Tucker, who
directed the Government Printer, B. Pullon, to order twenty tons of newsprint
from South Africa. But Tucker’s order to Pullon was clouded in secrecy. The later
was not informed what newspaper the newsprint was for, who was to print it
or where it was to be printed. Before acting on his superior’s rather unusual
instruction, Pullon addressed a secret memorandum on 30 September 1942,
to the Chief Secretary of which he complained:

From the manner in which this instruction has been given to me I

am of the opinion that someone is trying to do something with a job
about which they knew very little, on which I could perhaps be more
helpful it I were admitted a little more into confidence.65

Five days later , on 5 October, Tucker wrote to Wykerd and Hovelmeier as

follows:

With reference to your order for 11/2 to 2 tons of newsprint or

substitute paper which Government is endeavoring to obtain on
your account, I have the honour to inform you that it will be necessary
to guarantee the order to the manufacturer for the duration of the
war, and for two years thereafter at the ruling Johannesburg prices.
I should be glad to know whether you are prepared to give this
guarntee66

Responding by letter dated 9 October 1942, Hovelmeier gave the guarantee for
one ton of newsprint per month under the conditions stipulated by Tucker.67
But before Tucker had even written the letter, the Director of Civil Supplies, H.K.
Mackee had written to the Supplies Representative for the Northern Rhodesia
Government in Johannesburg, confirming telegrams he had sent on October
6 and 7 respectively instructing him to:

Urgently please use best endeavours (to) obtain for Government

account twenty tons mechanized super calendared printing paper
or newsprint. Immediate purchase if possible or guaranteed delivery
two tons monthly. This order quite apart from monthly contract
arrangements for commercial paper now being made between
Sapulpa and Government. Telegraph or telephone result of your
efforts Friday morning latest.
65 Ibid. B. Pullon to the Chief Secretary. See Appendix V.

66 Ibid. Keith Tucker to Messrs. Copperbelt Printers Ltd. See Appendix VI.

67 Ibid. E. B. Hovelmeier to Financial Secretary. See Appendix VII.

49
Press in Zambia
In this communication Mackee, like Pullon, also revealed that he was not fully
informed on why the newsprint was required and that secrecy was involved.
He noted:

I regret I am unable to give you further information, as the purpose

of which the paper is required is strictly confidential and I know very
little about it. It is clear, however, that you are to do all you can to
obtain the paper for Government.68

In Johannesburg, Supplies Representative F.H. Lowe, in a letter to the Controller

of paper in Pretoria, which was copied to the Chief Secretary in Lusaka, dated
13 October 1942, confirmed a telephone conversation he had earlier with the
same person that a telegram had been received from the Financial Secretary
of Northern Rhodesia intimating that the 20 tons super calendered paper
was required by the Northern Rhodesia Government for the purpose of news
publication.69 A day before this letter was written, Lowe had ordered 10 tons
of super calendered paper from the South African Pulp and Paper Industries
which was invoiced to the Northern Rhodesia Government in the person of
the Director of Civil Supplies.70

Meanwhile, back in Northern Rhodesia, Hovelmeier, in an undated letter

applied to the Postmaster General for registration of The Northern News in
which he said Government had given them permission to publish the paper.71
But he Postmaster General reminded Hovelmeier and his partner(s) in a
telegram that they had first to seek exemption from Section II of Government
Notice No. 110 of 1942 which prohibited publication of any new newspapers.
The telegram prompted Hovelmeier, in the name of Copperbelt Printers and
Publishers, the company that was to publish the paper, to officially apply to
the Director of Civil Supplies for exemption to the said notice. The application,
dated 27 October 1942, explained that both the Government of the territory
And the Chief Secretary had been interviewed on 19 September 1942 about
the proposed newspaper and were agreeable. Hovelmeier and his partner(s)
had, therefore, presumed that there was no need to file an official application
for exemption to Government Notice No. 110 of 1942.72 The Director of Civil
Supplies, who obviously was unaware of this interview with the highest
executive in the country, promptly obliged. His letter exempting them was

68 Ibid. H.K. Mackee to Harod, Supplies Representative. See Appendix VIII.

69 Ibid. Lowe to the Manger of South African Pulp and Paper Industries Ltd see Appendix X

70 Ibid. F. H. Lowe to Controller of Paper, Pretoria. See Appendix IX

71 Ibid. Hovelmeier to Postmaster General. See Appendix XI

72 Ibid. Hovelmeier to Director of Civil Supplies. See Appendix XII

50
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
dated 31 October 1942.73 But eight days earlier the Postmaster General had
already been advised by the Director of Civil Supplies in a letter dated 24
October 1942 that Copperbelt Printers and Publishers were exempted from
Government Notice No. 110 of 1942.74

The Northern News finally appeared on 26 May 1943 with ambitious claim
of “(covering) the country from Congo (river) to the Zambezi (river).” It had a
circulation of 2,000.

The way in which various Government officials dealt with the founding of The
Northern News as detailed above, is remarkable for several reasons.

First, there can be no doubt that Welensky used his influence as Leader of the
Unofficials in the Legco, to persuade top Government officials to permit him
and his partners to star a newspaper at a most awkward time when newsprint
was in short supply. In this connection, it becomes clear that The Northern
News was not just the Copperbelt Times under a new name. Had this been
the case, Government Notice No. 110 would not have applied. The fact that
The Northern News was subject to this proclamation suggests that it was a
completely new publication.

Second, the secret manner in which to Government officials dealt with both
the application for and the purchasing of newsprint for this newspaper – never
once confiding in their juniors – was highly irregular. It is hard to explain such
behaviour in any other way than to conclude that the Government wanted
from the start to be connected at the highest level with the new journal. It
was certainly unprecedented for such officials to hid under a cloud of secrecy
and order newsprint to be paid for from Government coffers for a private
newspaper. Furthermore, in the apparent absence of documentary evidence
to the country, it is doubtful that Copperbelt Printers and Publishers even
repaid the Government for the newsprint thus obtained.

Third, the enthusiasm with which Government officers carried out the whole
business, sending telegrams and short-cutting normal channel, was, again,
unprecedented for a government in dealing with a private newspaper.

The fact remains, however, that the Northern Rhodesia Government had no
financial stake in The Northern News. In 1944, Welensky bought out the entire
shareholding and was majority shareholder in the paper until December
1950 when he sold it to the Southern Rhodesia-based Rhodesia Printing

73 Ibid. Director of Civil Supplies to Messr. Copperbelt Printers and Publishers. See Appendix XIII

74 Director of Civil Supplies to Postmaster General. See Appendix XIV.

51
Press in Zambia
and Publishing Company (4,000 shares) and the South Africa-based Argus
Company (3,500 share). The later was the parent company of the former.75

Figure

75 The Northern News, 30 June 1965, “Goodbye to the Northern News.” P. 1

52
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
Upon becoming sole owner of The Northern News, Welensky appointed
Stan Hobson (who later become a shareholder) editor and made sure that
the paper was his political mouthpiece. To ensure this, Welensky wrote the
“think pieces” himself.76 he also wrote many “letters to the Editor” himself
under assumed names on controversial topics to which he then replied in
subsequent issues, this time using his own name, destroying the arguments he
had first propagated in order to convince the readers to agree with his points
of view.77

The Northern News Repeatedly declared that it was there to support Welensky
and his cause – namely the Federation.

The editorial policy of this Newspaper, since its inception some five
years ago, has been unwaveringly to back any move which is aimed at
loosening administration of this territory. Long before our advent in
territorial politics, Mr. Welensky was championing the cause and with
the passage of the years it has become increasingly obvious that he
has dedicated his political career to this objective. As a consequence
our editorial policy has, to a large degree, followed in the wake of
Mr. Welensky’s strenuous efforts with the advent of what is likely to
prove the most important general election held in the country’s short
history, it is obvious that we must unreservedly offer our support
to these candidates whose policy most closely follow that of the
acknowledged of the cause….

Mr. Welensky’s political record is an open book and does not require
an endorsement on our part….78

The Northern News maintained this policy up to the early 1960’s, as

will be seen later, when it was obvious that Welensky’s Federation was

76 Gale, The Rhodesian Press, p. 189. write: “Welensky wrote the political articles himself and in the minutes
of the company’s annual general meeting in 1948 is a resolution that ‘in view of Mr. Welensky’s contributions
of political press matter the News Service Account should be debited 250 pounds to cover the year ending
March 31, 1949.’”

77 His official biographer Garry Allighan, The Welensky Story (cape Town: Purnell and Sons S.A Pty. Ltd., 1962),
p.151, write: “Roy Welensky had made far more use of editorial columns of Northern News than is normal
with a proprietor. While ensuring that the leading article did not. At any rate, directly oppose his policies, he
took steps to see that other pages actively assisted him. He personally fancied the ‘Letters to Editor’ page and
frequently wrote a letter, under an assumed name, that put forward some argument which, in the next issue
and under his own name, he could convincingly demolish and, in so doing, provide the triumphant counter-
argument of his own policies. It was by employing that device that he was able to excite reader interest in
his case for depriving the B.S.A Company of mining royalties… using the same editorial columns, he created
boiling-point interest in his agitation for amalgamation of the two Rhodesia’s, “see also Rosalynde Ainslie, The
Press in Africa, p. 93

78 The Northern News, June 1948.

53
Press in Zambia
falling apart. This was due mainly to the fact that Welensky was for a
long time a shareholder of the Northern News even after he had sold
it to the Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company and the Argus.79
He, thus, still was in position to manipulate the paper’s policy.

African nationalists took great exception to The Northern News’ policy of

supporting Welensky and the Federation. They made this clear through the
pro-African newspaper, African Mail. When it started in 1960 as we shall see in
Chapter V. UNIP accused the Northern News of deliberate distortion of news
to suit Whites. Its leaders warned “UNIP will have no time for such newspapers
when we take over.”80

The Northern News then was not an independent newspaper. It was the
voice of Roy Welensky. It is a classic example of how a newspaper owner can
manipulate the editorial policy of his newspaper to archive political ends .
but Welensky was not the first one to do this in the history of the press in
Zambia. neither was he the last. Leopold Moore had done the same with his
Livingstone Mail and won himself a seat in the Legco. Dr. Alexander Scott, as
we shall see presently, used his Central African Post in the same manner. In the
case of Welensky, it is fair to state that he become the Prime Minister of the
Federation thanks largely to The Northern News.

When the Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company and the Argus Group
bought controlling shares in The Northern News on 27 November 1950,
it was the first time a foreign company81 had ever owned a newspaper in
Northern Rhodesia – a significant development in the future relationship
between Government and the press in the country. The new owners, as
already indicated, continued with pro-Welensky and pro-Federation policy.
The paper still catered to Whites only. As a general rule The Northern News
never carried stories about Africans for their own sake, unless such stories
had some relevance to the Whites. If and when stories about the indigenous
people did appear, they were full of racist epithets like “black”,“African”,“native”
and “primitive.” In layout, The Northern News resembled its senior town mate
the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser. It carried heavy advertising. The news
columns also carried the familiar “ news from…” logos. It had its own version
of the “Balbus” column, which it called “Man in the North”.“News from London”,
which was received from the South African Press Association (SAPA) and later
79 The Northern News, 19 April 1960 quoting The Voice of UNIP, April 1960.

80 gale. The Rhodesian Press, p. 190

81 As already noted above, the Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company was a subsidiary of the Argus. The
Argus group was a South African Newspaper publishing company whose major investor was an organisa-
tion called Central-mining-Rand-Mines, a South African mining and land conglomerate that embraced Anglo
American Corporation which had, and still has large mining interest in Zambia.

54
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
Reuters was prominent in every issue.

The Northern News repeatedly condemned the “equal pay for all work” cal
by African miners. On occasions, views by Black labour and political leaders
were given wide coverage in order to editorialize on them and put forward the
paper’s case for the White more convincingly. For the same reason, the paper
also published a few letters by Africans which were critical of it, Welensky and
the Federal Governement.82

The relationship between The Northern News and the Northern Rhodesia
Government can be described as amicable.83 Neither side picked quarrels with
the other, although the Northern News was mildly critical of the Protectorate
Government, particularly between 1953 and 1963 when Welensky’s Federation
had become a reality. A message which the Governor of Northern Rhodesia
sent to the editor of the Northern News in September 1958 is indicative of this
amicable relationship. The Governor telegraphed the editor, Stopford Brook-
Norris, thanking him for the part he played in ending the 53-day Copperbelt
strike. All Brook-Norris had done was to write an editorial in which he suggested
that the two sides – Blacks and Whites – should sit at the conference table
to settle their differences. The proposal was accepted by both sides and that
earned Brook-Norris the telegram from Her Majesty’s representative.84 The
relationship between the Northern New and the Federal Government was
even warmer, of course, since none other than Welensky was the Federal Prime
Minister for a long time. But that is outside the scope of this work

Central African Post

There can be no doubt that as a founder of newspapers, Dr. Alexander Scott

was to Northern Rhodesia what Horace Greeley was to the United States of
America in the 19th century.85 Scott founded not only the Central African Post
but also the African Times and the African Mail, both of which will be discussed
in Chapter V. Unlike Greeley, however, Scott was not a journalist. He was a
retired physician who took to newspaper journalism as more or less a full-time
hobby. He was very politically minded. In his first editorial in the Post on 12
April 1948, Scott promised that the paper , the first in the capital city of Lusaka,
was to be the link between Government and the people. It was

82 Possibly to maintain the precedent set by Welensky, see footnote 66.

83 Not considering the short interlude when Northern Rhodesia was in the hands of the African, just before
independence in 1964.

84 The Northern News, 11 September 1958, editorial.

85 Edwin Emery and Michael Emery, The Press and America, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1978),
passim.

55
Press in Zambia

Figure

to show the people the activities and inertias of the Government. It was to
have a close view of political personalities. The Post was so political in content
that on its first anniversary Scott saw the need to defend this policy in an
editorial. He wrote:

It (the Post) has been compelled to devote too much space…. To

politics, and to little to economics. We prefer to discuss and comment
on the latter. Events of any importance in this country, however,
have been almost entirely political; Responsible Government,
Discriminative Taxation (which we hold to be political) and Federation.
We have had no option but to discuss these things and the motives
of the man responsible to them.86

The Post had very clear defined stands on most of the key political issues
which it published. The sample survey in Table 4 is a fair indication of the
general editorial stand of the paper throughout it lifetime, although it covers
a period of only four years. The fact that out of 188 editorials on 13 were in
the “Neutral” category shows that the Post was a very outspoken paper on
the Federation/Welensky, relationship between Blacks and Whites, and on
its relationship with the Northern Rhodesia Government. It rarely left the
reader in doubt as to its stand on these issues. Also the fact that two-thirds

86 Central African Post, 14 April 1949.

56
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
of its editorials were in the “against” category indicates that the newspaper
liked to serve as a sort of opposition. Most of these “opposition” editorials were
against Welensky and his moves to create a Central African Federation. Scott
had a particular dislike for Welensky dating from the early 1940’s when both
were employees of Rhodesia Railways in Kabwe. (Broken Hill).87At first the Post
bitterly opposed the Federation and Welensky, who was repeatedly called a
lair. The Paper’s main argument was that the Federation would impoverish
Northern Rhodesia – an argument that was later used effectively by African
nationalists. Scott, like Moore, used his newspaper to campaign for election
to the Federal Parliament in Salisbury. He won. On 4 August 1954, however,
after the Order in Council proclaiming the Federation has been signed in
London, the Post threw in the towel and started supporting the Federation
and, reluctantly, Welensky. This swing in policy is reflected in Table 4 with the
almost balancing number of editorials: 12 “for”, 11 “against” and 7 “neutral”.

On White settlers, the Post was seldom critical. In four years, as the table shows,
it published only two such editorials. One of these condemned a railway strike
by Whites, reminding them of their claim that the were more responsible than
the Blacks. Another castigated Whites for not being politically united.88 two
other editorials criticized John Gaunt, more as a politician than as a White, but
they also included in the “against” column because Gaunt’s political views
favoured Whites. 89

The table strongly suggests that the Post was very much an anti-Black
newspaper. In 1950, for instance, there were 20 editorials against Africans and
only 6 in their support. In its anti-Black editorials, the Post, among other things,
consistently maintained Blacks were not equals with Whites, not fit to have
university education, and not intelligent enough to run a Governement.90 It
once warned:

No one in Northern Rhodesia than in Southern Rhodesia shall we

Europeans allow ourselves to be dominated politically. If the British
Government considers that its trusteeship will only end when African
have obtained full democratic rights which would enable them to
challenge Europeans rights, then that gulf between Britain and her
87 In an article headlined “Mr. Welensky’s Grievance,” Central African Post, 26 August 1948, Scott claimed Wel-
ensky hated him because as the Rhodesia Railways Doctor in Broken Hill the refused to yield pressure by the
railways union, of which Welensky was the General Secretary, to fire an African employed to hand out Epsom
salts to the Europeans because it was embarrassing. Another reason, Scott wrote, was that he had refused to
recommend Welensky’s relative for a war pension

88 Central Africa Post, 8 June 1954, and 16 February 1950.

89 Ibid. 16 and 23 June 1954

90 Ibid. 8 July and 12 August 1984: 19 May and 16 June 1949; and 27 April 1950 and 21 June 1954

57
Press in Zambia
colonists must widen.91

The Post dubbed as “fiction” the idea f partnership between Whites and
Blacks. It condemned inter-racial marriages as well as equal pay between
Blacks and Whites.92 on rare occasion, however, the newspaper did speak on
behalf of Blacks. There are two remarkable instances of this. At one time, the
Post appealed to White butchery owners to sell Blacks better meat than the
dog meat which was usually reserved for them.93 it also supported the idea of
Africans forming trade unions.94

On a few occasions, the Post gave a semblance of fairness to the two races by
condemning or supporting both sides in the same editorial. But such occasions
were extremely rare as the table suggest.

Its stand with regard to the Northern Rhodesia Government was critical. This
is again indicated by the table. Only seven editorials were in support of the
Government during the four years as against 18 “against”. As a matter of fact,

91 Ibid. 22 December 1949

92 Ibid. 19 January 1954.

93 Ibid. 4 June 1954.

94 Ibid. 14 April 1949.

58
Newpapers for white settlers: 1906-1960
TABLE 4

ANALYSIS OF CENTRAL AFRICAN POST EDITORIALS

Number of Editorials
Topic Year For Against Neutral Total
1948 12 12
Federation/Roy 1949 31 2 33
Welensky 1950 1 24 25
1954 12 11 7 30
1948 3 3
1949 6 6
Whites
1950 4 1 6
1
1954 1 3 4
1948 1 1
1949
Blacks
1950 6 20 26
1954 4 3 2 9
1948 1 1
1949 1 1
Blacks/Whites
1950 2 2
1954 2 1 3
1948 2 2
1949 5 5
Government
1950 4 10 15
1
1954 1 3 4
Total 51 124 13 188

Compiled from issues of the Central African Post covering four years.
Editorials that did not fail in any of the categories above were left out.

the paper even boasted of its role as opposition to the Government. One
editorial read:

We think we have fulfilled quite a useful role by criticism of measure in

the Council (Legco.) Since there is no opposition in it. And we intend
to maintain this role, until it is no longer required.85

Like The Livingstone Mail, the Post considered itself a very powerful opposition
against the Government. It bragged:

We are not an opposition like the Conservative opposition in Britain,

which can do so little to influence Socialist policy. We are so strong
an opposition that we have compelled this Government to send a

59
Press in Zambia
demand to England and made it expedient to Mr. Creech Jones the
British Colonial Secretary to invite a delegation to discuss it. We are so
strong that we have forced the Government to accept the proposal
for equal pay for all members in the Legislative Council. We have
compelled the Government to form African Provincial Councils, fix
the price of maize, pay subsides, extend price control and generally
conform to our wishes…..95

On the Government side, the Central African Post is rarely mentioned in report
and memoranda, an indication that the Government was satisfied with the
paper’s performance, at least officially.

Apart from its political bias, the Post resembled its contemporaries in content
as a newspaper for White settlers. It had, on its foreign file,‘London Comment by
Townsman” – a sort of in-depth news from London. It also had a political think-
piece column called “At the corner of Selous Street” (later known as “At the
Corner of Cairo Road”) which Scott wrote and often used as a diatribe against
his arch-enemy, Welensky. Just as the Northern News over-publicised Welensky,
the Post gave prominent publicity to the political activities of Alexander Scott.
But unlike the Northern News, the Northern Rhodesian Advertiser and The
Livingstone Mail, the Post was not well supported by advertisements and ran
at a loss.

To sum up this chapter, the above named newspaper were for White settlers.
They offered littler for the African. Their editorial policies were to support the
settlers and speak against the indigenous people. They catered only to the
White people and ignored the Blacks. If and when they did refer to Blacks their
tone was almost always racist. Africans, who were slowly becoming literate,
did not like this. They often protested but the Government never intervened
on behalf of its “protected” subjects. It left the White press to please itself in
the traditional libertarian style of freedom of the press. There was a clearing
and growing need for newspaper for Africans. The White settlers – the only
people with money and technical know-how to establish newspapers – did
not want yet to strike their money in African newspaper. It fell to the colonial
Northern Rhodesia Government to perform this role by founding in 1936 the
first Government newspaper, Mutende, which was superseded by the African
Eagle in1953. these two newspapers are the subject of he next chapter.

95 Ibid. 12 August 1948.

60
4
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962

THE FIRST GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER:

1936-1962
Mutende – The African Newspaper of Northern Rhodesia: 1936-1952

Mutende was not only the first Government newspaper in Northern Rhodesia,
it was also the first “penny newspaper.” But unlike the “penny press” in United
States, where it originated in the 1830’s, Mutende was not meant to inform,
entertain and educate – in that order. The Government reversed the order
and made education the most important of the three roles. Mutende’s role
of informing the Africans about news events within and outside territory was
considered the least important.

This is the conclusion one looking at Mutende in retrospect is bound to make.

For its readers in 1936, however, the objectives of the paper as stated in the
first editorials must have sounded more or less orthodox. News came first. The
Government pledged that Mutende:

…Will tell you the latest news, both in your own country and in
distance lands. If your are at home it will describe to you the life of
your friends who are away at work; if you are at work it will tell you the
life of your home district.

It will tell you the doings of the Government, and explain new laws
which are made. It will tell you the doings of Africans on farms, in town
and at the mines. It will help those in search of work to find it. You
will read in this newspaper the writings of Europeans and Africans on
history, science, health, agriculture and other subjects.

…Mutende is your newspaper. If you buy it and read every word of

it, you will learn much that you did not know before, and become
interested in many news things.96

It was only seventeen years later in the paper’s last issue that former
editor J.G Phillips revealed:

It is not generally realized that Mutende was started for one reason
only. It was intended to supply reading matter to the ordinary

96 Mutende, January 1936

61
Press in Zambia

Figure

62
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962

people. Government had noted that while thousands of people were
obtaining little knowledge of how to read, there was very little for
them to read when they completed their studies…97

The farewell editorial in the same issue expressed even more

explicitly.

…Mutende was commenced, as a newspaper, to try and assist the

more backward of the numerous communities of Northern Rhodesia
– those who knew only one was of growing food, to guide those
whose children died because they knew nothing of the rules of
health and to try and bring to the mass of people in this country
some knowledge of the outer world…98

One of the main educational role Mutende took on was to teach Africans the
very idea of a newspaper as a tool for communicating news. Urbanization
was fast making the traditional news communication media, the drum, smoke
and fire, obsolete. Something had to replace them. The use of radio in mass
communication had not yet come to the territory. The newspaper had to fill the
gap. But it had to begin slowly. For the first few years, Mutende was a monthly
publication. Later it become fortnightly, and in the last three years, weekly.

Mutende was small in size, with a page measurement of only 11’ x 8 ½’ and
running to 14 pages per issue on the average. It had no reporters. The readers
were the reporters. They were repeatedly requested to write new letters
for publication. The letter were then translated into English by four African
translators and published either as letters or news snippets. Readers were
encouraged to read the published version and note of how their original
letters were edited so that they would write better next time.99

Public response to the appeal for letters was at first very good. Letters poured
into Mutende’s make-shift tin office from all corners of the country.100 very few
of them, however, got published. Few of them contained any real news, and a
good number even contained false reports. About the latter, the editor once
complained:

97 J.G Phillips, “Mutende Twelve years Ago,” Mutende, 30 December 1952. Phillips was the editor of the paper
from 1938 to 1941

98 Ibid

99 Mutende, April and June 1937, January and December 1938, February and April 1939 and January 1941.

100 According to the editorial of April 1937, the editor received well over 200 letter every month

63
Press in Zambia
..Now that we are receiving so much more news from our readers, it is
more important than ever before that they send news which is true.
We still receive stories which on checking, turn out to be wrong. We
can not check all the stories that we receive. It is not enough that you
should have heard of something. You must go yourselves, if possible,
and find out what has happened. If you can not do that, you must
only believe the word of someone really trustworthy. The motto of
every good newspaper reporter is Verify Your Facts. Find out if they
are true.101

It did not take long for readers to become disillusioned with Mutende and the
news report letters become few.

Mutende was not all sold. Soldiers and civil servants got it gratis. Exactly how
many copies of the newspaper were given free is hard to tell as there are no
records but it is safe to assume that several hundreds were handed out from
the issue.

TABLE 5
CIRCULATION OF MUTENDE

Year Circulation Year Circulation

1936-1938 4,000 each year 1946 18,950
1939 8,000 1947-1948 17,900 each year
1940-1941 9,300 each year 1949 18,000
1942-1943 13,680 each year 1950 16,200
1944 18,000 1951 11,000
1945 19,800 1952 13,000

Compiled from Northern Rhodesia Government Annual Reports.

The figures in Table 5 should, therefore, be interpreted cautiously. They might

not represent the actual growth of the newspaper. Only two thing are certain.
One is that Mutende never made any profit. The other is that its popularity
decreased rather than increased.

Mutende ran at a considerable loss mainly because of lack of advertisements.

Few traders were willing to advertise in it the Government tried to reduce the
losses in 1946 by drastically cutting down on free distribution. Troops ceased to
get free copies and the list of complimentary copies as a whole was reduced.7
These measures partly explain the drop in circulation from 1946 onwards as
shown in the Table.

101 Mutende May 1938.

64
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
The generally declining figures after 1946 are partly due to the fact that many
Africans did not want Mutende – a fact the Government itself admitted as
will be seen later. Mutende’s unpopularity may have been due to several
factors. One was that out of 73 tribes in the country, the Government chose
to publish the paper in four local languages in addition to English. These were
Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga and Lozi.8 Africans belonging to the other tribe whose
languages were not used were not happy. Then there was the question of
which of the four languages got what page. As a general rule, English took the
front page, except on few occasions when editors experimented by leading
of with one or other of the four African languages, with disastrous effects.
The idea of a multi-lingual newspaper did not appeal to many Africans who
wanted Mutende to be totally English as were the White settlers’ independent
newspaper which they admired. Thus one reader from Luanshya observed in
a letter to the editor:

…Many Africans despise Mutende and walk about with European

papers which they try to read.9102

apart from the language problem, the news stories and articles themselves
were not appealing. They often presented only one side- the Government
viewpoint.

People will always resent being told by their rulers what news to believe,
especially if those rulers happen to be unpopular, as the colonists were. The
Africans of Northern Rhodesia found it hard to believe most of the news in
Mutende. They took its war news, for example, with a good pinch of salt. They
new that it was oversimplified and far less informative than the war news
which appeared in the uncensored White Press. On one occasion the editor
resorted to the uncivil language of calling his critics “stupid” for not believing
the war news published by the paper103

This attitude was typical. Mutende shunned any type of criticism by liberal-
minded Africans. The letters it published were always those that sang, praises
of the Government.104 Letters critical of the paper and the Government never
saw print except indirectly on a basis for editorial comment. The idea was
to keep the slight educated African, whom the Government believed was
being influenced by outside liberal organisation such as thee Watch Tower
and Black Power movements, subservient. Richard Hall, managing editor of
the Northern Rhodesia Government publications between 1958 and 1960,
102 Northern Rhodesia, Informative Department, 1946 Annual Report

103 Nyanja is not a tribe but a language spoken widely mainly in the eastern part of Zambia

104 Mutende, October 1939. p.1

65
Press in Zambia
expressed Mutende’s role succinctly when he said:

Mutende was much more of an attempt to fend off the type of Black
Power which the colonial Government with people like Marcus
Garvey.105

Mutende did not follow a regular pattern in content or in layout. Editors

published anything, in any form and anywhere in this paper. Few features held
a regular space. One such was the cartoon “Ushifwayo.” Otherwise each issue
bore little resemblance to its predecessors. This lack of identity reflected the
uncertainty of its editors about what kind of paper they wanted to publish.
Instead of determining what the readers wanted, the editors urged the readers
to do the job for them.106 They later realized that this policy was unworkable.
Looking back, Mutende’s first editor, M.R.S. Denny, expressed his successors’
frustrations well when he wrote:

We did not know then, and it has taken a long time to discover,
what the reader wanted. He said he wanted local gossip- we urged
correspondents to send us such without much success. He wanted
news of the world – we gave it to him and he did not believe it.
He wanted uplifting articles on agriculture, health or hygiene –we
wrote them and were told that they were too difficult to understand.
Pictures, yes, we published pictures but there was something wrong
with them too.107

Mutende’s unpopularity was not limited to its reader,the [Link] Unofficial

Whites in the Legislative Council led by Welensky denounced the paper as a
Government “propaganda weapon,” accusing the Government of deliberately
publishing untruths in Mutende. 108 in a last-ditch attempts to achieve
popularity, the editorial board in December 1950 made recommendations to
make it (Mutende) more attractive to the educated African and to the more
politically minded reader on the Copperbelt.”109 The recommendations were
not made public, but whatever they were, they failed to save the paper. On
30 December 1952, the Government gave up the struggle and closed down
105 In his message of farewell to Mutende, Mutende, 30 December 1952, the director of information noted:
“….it was difficult for it (Mutende) to be critical, especially of Government affairs because it was a Government
newspaper; it could hardly criticize itself and it is not a function of the Government newspaper to deal with
controversial matters.”

106 Interview with Richard Hall, London, April 1979.

107 An editorial in Mutende, March 1939 read: “The editor’s duty is to give readers what they want, and only
the readers themselves can tell the editor what they want , and what they do not what…”

108 Mutende, 30 December 1952

109 Mutende, April 1948, p.1

66
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
Mutende.

The Government consoled itself by telling the country that Mutende had
ceased not because it was unsuccessful but because African had reached a
staged at which they wanted more than Mutende could offer them.110 What is
more honest is the admission by the Government that Mutende died because
“for many years there had been a feeling among both Europeans and Africans
that there should be an independent newspaper for Africa.”111 Of source the
Government did not openly admit the latter view at the time. It was only given
later as a post mortem.

The African Eagle: 1953 –1962

On December 1952, the Northern Rhodesia Government signed a contract

with C.A.G Paver representing African Newspaper, a company based a
Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, which he and his brother owned. Under the
contract, the Government agreed to suspend the publication of Mutende and
the company agreed to publish in Northern Rhodesia, to the satisfaction of
the Government, two weekly newspaper, one designed to meet the needs of
the more advanced and politically conscious African and the second to meet
the needs of the less advanced African.

In an exchange of letter it was mutually agreed that the policy of the two
newspaper was to reflect with accuracy the social, economic, and political life
of the African population in Northern Rhodesia. The company was to maintain
the closest liaison with Government to ensure that this policy would be
efficiently and continuously carried out. To ensure the above objectives,

18 Northern Rhodesia, Information Department Annual Report, 1952.

110 Northern Rhodesia, Information Department Annual Report 1950

11117Mutende, 30 December 1952, “Director of Information’s Message of Farewell to Mutende),”

67
Press in Zambia
Figure

68
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
it was agreed that the two newspapers would eventually be printed and
published in Lusaka.

The agreement provided for the acquisition by Africa Newspaper, at a price

fixed by an independent valuator, of a printing press owned by the Government
and the payment by the sum of 1,000 pounds for the goodwill of Mutende.

The government on its part agreed to pay 39,000 pounds to African Newspapers
an advertising appropriation in the sum of 6,000 pounds annually for the
first two years, thereafter diminished yearly by 600 pound until depleted. In
consideration of the payments of advertising appropriation, the company
agreed to reserve, it so required, at least one column in each newspaper for
the purpose of Government advertising or for such other purpose as the
Government might require.112

The two newspaper were to be The African Eagle, for the less advanced
Africans, and northern edition of an already established Southern Rhodesia
African newspaper, The African Weekly, for those more advanced. The company,
however, abandoned the letter idea as not feasible and concentrated on The
African Eagle.

The Eagle started on 6 January 1953, with the identifying mark “Successor to
Mutende” which it bore beneath its nameplate until 25 November 1958. the
Governor of Northern Rhodesia welcomed the new paper by expressing the
hope that readers would find in The Eagle “information, the reading matter,
and the encouragement and inspiration they need.” The publishers, on their
part, pledged to give the readers the opportunity of studying each problem
in the light of all that was said for and against it, regardless of whether the
opinions expressed were popular or not. They pointed out that although it
was impossible to please everybody, they would not be so foolish as to ignore
suggestions or criticisms from readers. They also promised to oppose any
attempt by Government to influence or control the paper.113

The Eagle inherited the paid circulation of Mutende (13,000). A Northern

Rhodesian African, Moses Makwaya, was appointed assistant editor, to be
based in Lusaka. Like Mutende, The Eagle was published in English, Bemba,
Nyanja, Lozi and Tonga.
Unlike Mutende, however, The Eagle did not directly rely on its readers for
stories. These were supplied by a subsidiary company called African News

112 Federation of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasland, Auditor General’s Report for Northern Rhodesia for Finan-
cial year 1957-58, p.4

113

69
Press in Zambia
Distributors, also based in Salisbury. This company was a news agency of sorts.
It collected news stories from stringers or correspondents and passed them
on to The Eagle. But in as the case of Mutende he reporting was often

20The African Eagle, 6 January 1953

inaccurate, making The Eagle a “hopelessly inaccurate and laughably bad

publication.”21114

Several readers actually complained in letters to the editor about bad treatment
of news stories in The Eagle. A Ndola reader wrote:

Sir, it is a matter of fact to say that most of our present correspondents

for this paper are not up to the standard of correspondent…

…most news item in this journal from some reporters or

correspondents begin like this: “Polygamy is a bad thing,” and then
the writer goes on to tell us that a woman committed suicide. It
would not be wrong if the writer simply heads: “Husband maries
another wife – wife commits suicide,” and then proceed with what
had actually happened.

Whether polygamy is a bad or good thing leave it to your readers to

judge…115

Although The Eagle professed to be an independent newspaper, it exhibited

a generally timid editorial policy, rarely commenting on hot issues. It seem
to have had a wait-until-it-cool-down policy. Some examples: for three full
months there was no editorial on the Federal White Paper which ushered in
the much-discussed Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The paper also for
several months avoided commenting on (or even reporting) the firing of 300
African workers of Chilanga Cement Factory in Lusaka who had obeyed orders
of the African National Congress to stay away from work to observe a period
of prayer against the impending Federation.116 in another case , The Eagle did
114 Richard Hall, interview.

115 The Eagle. 13 March 1956

116 The federal Whit Press was signed in January 1953 but the newspaper’s comment came only in March. The
strike started in January 1954. Comment came in February

70
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
not comment on the boycott of Lusaka butcheries by Africans until a month
after the boycott had started.117

If and when it dealt with controversial matters, The Eagle rarely spoke its
mind. Its editorials were in most cases the “yes” or “no” type in which the paper
merely either agreed or disagreed with someone’s opinion. Consequently
well-reasoned objective stands on issues, which good newspapers sometimes
take, were almost absent form The Eagle’s editorial columns Table 6, like Table
4, gives a graphic indication of the trend of The Eagle’s editorial policy on the
given topics. 118 it is not an attempt to analyse all the editorials in the paper.

Table 6 strongly suggests that The Eagle was decidedly to pro-Federation

newspaper, there were only 10 editorials over the period of nine years which
were “against” the Federation as against 34 “for”. The Table also shows, however,
that in the last two years of existence (1960 and 1961), a major shift of The
Eagle’s policy towards the Federation took place from one of unqualified
support during the period prior to 1960 to one of qualified support. Part of
the reason for the change might have been the strong opposition the paper
received from Africans, most of whom wee not only opposed to the Federation
but were fighting to bring it down.

As seen in Chapter II, militant opposition to the Federation intensified in 1958

with the formation of UNIP. This new party carried out the famous “Cha Cha
Cha” campaign, begun by the short-lived Z.A.N.C., in which some schools,
bridges, and several other installations were destroyed as a protest against
Federation and to demand independence for Northern Rhodesia. The fear of
similar reprisals against itself might well have persuaded The Eagle to soften
its support for Federation.

The destruction of public property and accompanying violence between the

rival UNIP and Nkumbula’s A.N.C between 1959 to 1961 also partly explains
the paper’s increasing opposition to African nationalism reflected in Table
6. The other reason was to split in 1958 of the A.N.C., when Kenneth Kaunda
led Z.A.N.C. – UNIP’s forerunner. The Eagle, which had consistently supported
Nkumbula and the A.N.C., opposed the split. Before the split, the paper had
been so overtly pro-A.N.C. that in 1957 Nkumbula had left obliged to thank it
for its support. He wrote:

… I would like to make special mention to the successor of Mutende

which, although it had “strings tied to it,” managed to put forward the

117 The boycott started in the first week of January 1954 but the comment came on February 9, 1954.

118 See Table 4 on page 45 above

71
Press in Zambia
African’s case heroically and to such a degree as to cause a section of
the Government officials to think of withdrawing the subsidy it was
receiving…119

But UNIP were less happy with The Eagle than were A.N.C. in 1959 the then
UNIP leader Mainza Chona (Kaunda was in detention) burnt a copy of the
paper at a public meeting in Ndola because he was angered by its editorial
comments on the party’s proposed boycott on the Monckton Commission.120

119 The African Eagle, 19 November 1957, “Nkumbula looks back seven years praises Press and Radio,” p.1

120 Ibid. 17 November 1959, “ Chona Burns Copy of Eagle,” p.1

72
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
TABLE 6
ANALYSIS OF THE AFRICAN EAGLE EDITORIALS
Number of Editorials
Topic Year For Against Total
1953 12 7 19
1954 18 11 29
1955 23 13 26
1956 12 9 21
Africa Advancement 1957 10 9 19
1958 5 6 11
1959 2 0 2
1960 2 1 3
1961 2 0 2
Total 76 56 132
1953 3 0 3
1954 4 0 4
1955 2 2 4
1956 1 0 1
1957 8 0 8
Federation 1958 9 0 9
1959 2 0 2
1960 2 5 7
1961 3 3 6
Total 34 10 44
1953 9 0 9
1954 0 0 0
African Nationalism/ 1955 5 2 7
Trade Unionism 1956 2 11 13
1957 4 5 9
1958 5 21 26
1959 6 11 17
1960 4 14 18
1961 0 2 2
Total 35 66 101

73
Press in Zambia
TABLE 6 CONTINUED
5 8 13
1953 3 5 8
Government 1954 4 2 6
1955 1 2 3
1956 5 4 9
1957 10 2 12
1958 3 2 5
1959 4 1 5
1960 4 2 6
1961
Total 39 28 67
1953 6 3 9
1954 5 0 5
1955 4 2 5
Black/White 1956 6 2 7
1957 4 2 5
1958 2 3 4
1959 2 2 3
1960 2 0 2
1961 1 0 1
Total 32 9 41

Compiled from issues of The African Eagle covering the nine years.
Editorials that did not fall under the categories above were not included

The Eagle by and large supported African advancement. It campaigned for

education, better homes and a healthier life for Africans. But it also took a
rather paternalistic approach, tending to look at the African through the same
spectacles worn by the White newspapers discussed above. Foe example,
the paper defended the colour bar in shops by arguing that buying through
pigeon holed for Africans was not really racist but only a custom that had been
instituted because in earlier times Africans has smelt and worn skins.121 and up
to as late as 1960, the newspaper still held that the majority of “responsible

people” were Europeans, that only a few educated Africans were “responsible”.

The Eagle, however, was consistent in its support for a multi-racial society,
making many more positive editorial contributions towards partnership than
negative ones, as shown in Table 6.

121 Ibid. 31 March 1953

74
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
Because of its connections with Government, discussed at the beginning of
this section, The Eagle had to deal with matters in that area cautiously. This
relationship is reflected in the almost equal number of editorials “for” and
“against” the Government shown in Table 6. The only major imbalance occurred
in 1958 when 10 editorials were published in support of the Government and
only two against it. No definite reason for this swing is apparent, other than the
possibility that the paper wanted to go out of its way to show that it had no
malice against the Government. Whatever the reason, the timing of the swing
was remarkable. Since 1955, relations between The Eagle and the Government
had become disenchanted with the performance of The Eagle and made this
clear publicly.

In 1957 the Chief Information Officer made the following remarks in his
department annual report:

….The Press is further limited in its effort because of the lack of

popularity of Mutende’s successor, and also because inadequate
distribution arrangements persist and will continue to do so because
it is purely commercial concern and therefore only distributed
where it pays to do so commercially. Moreover, though Government
subsidized, it is no subject to Government control, and the views it
purveys and manner in which it presents news are often in conflict
with Government policy.122

The publishers of The Eagle took great exception to this report. In their reply, in
a editorial, they denied that they often presented news in such a manner that
it was in conflict with Government policy. They, however, acknowledged that
they often published views and opinions of organizations or individuals who
were critical of Government regulations. The publishers claimed they had in
fact greatly improved on the circulation of Mutende which they had inherited.
Finally, they pointed out that subsidy paid by Government covered only a
small portion of the production costs, asserting that they had incurred “fairly
substantial losses” in their efforts to establish The Eagle as an independent but
responsible newspaper.123

In 1959, the Government announced the severing of ties with The Eagle.

29Ibid. 19 April 1960

122 Northen Rhodesia, Information Department Annual Report, 1956.

123The African Eagle, 7 May 1957

75
Press in Zambia
In his report of the financial year 1957-58, under section entitled: “Wasteful
Expenditure: Payments to a Newspaper Company,” the Auditor-General of
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland tabled the following report to the
Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council:

…Almost from the start the Government was dissatisfied with the
manner in which the company was carrying out its obligations in
respect of The African Eagle, principally in its failure to maintain an
effective liaison with Government and its reluctance to open an
editorial office in Lusaka and print the newspaper there. Over the years
there were constant negotiations by Government in an endeavour
to persuade the proprietors to improve the paper and establish
closer liaison, and in 1956 consideration was given to ceasing the
payments, but Government was advised that such a course would be
difficult to defend. In October, 1957, it was decided to negotiate for the
termination of the contract and settlement was reached in May 1958,
Government paying a sum of 9,000 pounds from Vote 58, sub-head
113, in full settlement of all outstanding obligations arising under
the agreement, on the understanding that both parties would be
released from further fulfillment of any liability under the agreement.
At the date settlement the outstanding obligations amounted to 14,
000 pounds for the remaining five years of the contract.

A considerable portion of the 24,300 pounds paid to the company

during the period 1st January 1953, to 30th June 1958, cannot be said
to have been paid for services satisfactorily rendered. Furthermore,
the final payment of 9,000 pounds must be regarded as nugatory
expenditure.124

As far as The Eagle’s part-owner Paver was concerned the contract had been
terminated because the company did not want to “depart from the spirit of
the original agreement.” Paver also revealed also that the Government had
insisted on African newspapers employing a White man, instead of Makwaya,
as assistant editor based in Lusaka.125

On 3 November 1959, The Eagle made one remarkable step: it cut down
the number of languages from five to three, dropping Lozi and Tonga, and
publishing only English, Bemba and Nyanja. Explaining the change, the editor
pointed out that it was evident that as the country developed and more and

124 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Auditor-General Report for Northern Rhodesia, Financial Year
1957-58, p.4

125 The African Eagle, 28 April 1959, “Contract Terminated with Government.”

76
The First Government Newspaper: 1936-1962
more industries came in to attract rural populations into towns, the Babel of
African languages in the country would gradually disappeared and only a few
– perhaps only two – would survive and live as national languages. The rest of
the languages would dwindle down to their tribal areas.126

as has been indicated, The Eagle created more enemies than friends among
the Africans because of its pro-Federation stand. Even Nkumbula’s A.N.C this
time condemned it as “United Federal Party’s recruiting agent.”127 it is most
likely the newspaper’s circulation fell drastically at this time, and the owners
must have found it more of a liability than an asset.

Finally, in 1961 The Eagle was sold to newspaper chain owner Roy Thomson of
Britain, who discontinued it the following year.

To summarize this chapter, the attempt by Northern Rhodesia Government

to publish a newspaper for Africans ended in failure after 17 years of struggle
mainly because the Africans did not want Mutende in its form, and published
by the Government.

Mutende’s successor, The African Eagle died from multiple wounds inflicted on
it by itself, the Government and the readers – the Africans. The Eagles editorial
policy brought it into head-on collision with its sponsors, the Government, and
led to the canceling of the subsidy. It was the paper’s editorial policy which
also drove away its readers.

After the demise of The Eagle, Northern Rhodesia needed an African

newspaper more than ever before to be both a watchdog as well as a rallying
force for African nationalism. And since the two attempts by the Government
to publish a newspaper for Africans, at first directly and later by Government
subsidy, had failed, it was now time to try another type of newspaper: one
published purely as a private business concern without any financial ties with
the Government. This type of African newspaper is the subject of Chapter V.

126 Ibid. 3 November 1959

127 Ibid 7 July 1959

77
5
Press in Zambia
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR
AFRICANS: 1957-1965
The short period of time-nine years- covered in this chapter is meant to be
a reflection of its importance. The contemporary Zambian press evolved
largely from this period. The appearance of privately-owned newspapers that
supported African aspirations meant that, for the first time, the White press
faced genuine opposition. Northern Rhodesia newspaper were now set to
begin their metamorphosis

African Times: 1957 –1958

Without considering ownership, Northern Rhodesia’s first truly African

newspaper was short-lived African Times. It was started by Dr. Alexander
Scott on 6 December 1957 and closed down four months later on 21 March
1958. Scott, who will be remembered as the owner of the pro-White Central
African Post, established African Times several months after selling the Post
to the Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company. It was a old move that no
publisher in the country had ever tried before. Scott was not, however, the sole
publisher. Although the paper was his brainchild, Scott did not own it alone.
He did not even edit is as he initially had done on the Post. Financial backing
for the African Times came from the First Permanent Building Society, in
which Scott a prominent shareholder. The managing director of African Times
was Frank Burton, who had been editor of the Post before it was sold to the
Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company. The editor was an experienced
African journalist, Elias Mtepuka, who had been lured for the post from the
Daily Mirror in London. Mtepuka, who had been with African Newspapers,
brought with him typical British advocacy journalism.

African Times, like all Scott’s newspapers, was a Lusaka weekly, priced at 3d
per copy. It entered the Northern Rhodesia newspaper field at a time when
the country was at its political crossroads. The Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland, of which Northern Rhodesia formed an abortive part, was in its fifth
year of increasing racial tension. Having apparently made no impact in their
verbal protests against Federation, Northern Rhodesia Africans were turning
more and more to the language of violence and destruction referred to in
Chapter 11 African nationalism was becoming ore militant and the Federal
Government more ruthless. The newspaper described the political situation in
the country in its first editorial thus:

78
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

Figure

79
Press in Zambia
We enter the newspaper field at the most critical period in Central
African’s history. The wave of racial conflict is rising. Destruction is
increasing. The country is careering towards the unknown. The future
is dim. In the Federal sphere, partnership has barely gone beyond the
domain of grandiloquence. To counter the inevitable reaction, those
in power counsel more and yet more propaganda.
The Prime Minister is setting up a board of “race relations,” not racial
integration. There are angry outbursts against those in England who
dare raise friendly criticism and warning. A sense of self righteousness
pervades official reasoning. The rest of the world is shut out. It is in
such a Federation that we make our entry.

The newspaper went on to pronounce its role as follows”

… our mission is not to exacerbate the bitterness; it is not to aggravate

the crisis of our time. Our mission is to assist in finding a peaceful
solution…

we believe that lasting peace and stability can come to this country
only it its people are integrated into one nation. Otherwise “multi-
racialism” and “partnership” become meaningless shibboleths.

The editorial pointed pout that the newspaper saw Northern Rhodesia as
constituting two nations – White and Black. Government was in the hands
of an oligarchy of Whites. Whatever its justification and claims, the position
was fraught with dangerous possibilities. On both sides of the colour line, the
dominant political sentiment was,“either they or us.” It that continued, disaster
was certain. The editorial ended with the pledge:

We shall throw the weight of our voice against it (the two-nation

position). We shall do so without fearing of favouring any political
group. We owe no allegiance to any party, society, any congress or
any other organisation whatever, black or white. We shall speak to tell
the African he is wrong., as well as supporting him with all our vigour
when he is right. We know Africans need to give expression to their
legitimate aspirations. This will count as our primary duty

Scott saw his newspaper as the kind of journal Africans had been all along crying
for. The same sentiments were expressed by A.N.C leader Harry Nkumbula in
an article, “The Seven Years of the African Congress,” published in the same
first issue. Nkumbula also hoped that the newspaper would endeavour to put
forward the case for the African struggle for advancement. He said there had

80
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

been a considerable number of so-called African newspaper in existence but

all of them had suffered various shortcomings due to the fact that

their proprietors had tried to buttress Government policies which African

criticized.128

As the time went on, Mtepuka was ruthless and consistent in his editorials,
many of which were diatribes against the Federation. He also supported the
move dynamic members to the ANC, of whom Kenneth Kaunda was emerging
as leader. The news columns of African Times followed the same pattern of
carrying negative news about the Federation and mostly positive news about
African nationalists.

On 13 February 1958, Mtepuka died suddenly, following a short illness, leaving

Burton to do double duty. A month later, on 14 March, African Times closed
down. Its closure, however, had little to do with Mtepuka’s death. Nor was it
closed by the usual bankruptcy. The reason, as Clyde Sanger also suggests,
was that First Permanent Building Society was absorbed by Founders Building
Society of Southern Rhodesia. The new parent company, whose chairman, A. E.
P Robinson, was a well-known supporter of the Federation simply withdrew it
financial support from African Times.129

African Life: 1958-1961

In December 1958, nine months after African Times had closed down, another
newspaper with the adjective “African” emerged. It was called African Life,
published and initially edited by Sikota Wina in Ndola on the Copperbelt.130
it is not clear where Wina got financial backing to start African Life, but it is
probable that he was backed by a local Asian businesshouse.131

African Life did not in fact begin as a newspaper but as a magazine. It become
a newspaper on 1 November on 1 November 1959 when Wina turned it into

128 African Times, 6 December 1957

129 Clyde Sanger, Central African Emergency (Kingswood: Heinemann Ltd., 1960), p.333.

130 Wina later moved to Lusaka and published African Life for some time from his house, Hut No. 581 Matero.
But the newspaper was still printed in Ndola by Time Printing House. Mr. Wina has been a leading figure in
Zambia politics holding various senior party and Government posts, including that of Minister of Information.
He was, at the time of this research, chairman of Zambia Publishing Company, which published the Govern-
ment owned Zambia Daily Mail.

131 Richard Hall expressed the same opinion in the interview referred to above. Wina himself was reluctant
to reveal the identities of the people who financially backed him during a chat with him on 25 April 1978 in
Lusaka

81
Press in Zambia
Figure

82
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

a fortnightly journal, reducing its price from 6d to 3d. the occasion is notable
because it was the first time ever that an African in Northern Rhodesia had
published a newspaper.

In a signed editorial, Wina explained that he was making the change in

response to demands by readers all over the country who had been asking
him to bring out African Life more frequently. He wrote:

We have agreed with them because we believe that events in Central

Africa are moving fast, and a reliable news service is essential for our
readers….132

As a newspaper, African Life was virtually a UNIP mouth-piece – obviously

because of the publisher’s connection with top party leadership, which he
soon joined as publicity chief. It published many inside stories about UNIP
which were beyond the reach of other newspapers. For instance, when Kenneth
Kaunda was released fro detention on 9 January 1960, it was African Life alone
that published his message calling on the Africans in the country to unite.133
Again in August of the same year, the assault on Mainza Chona, UNIP deputy
president and London representative, by three British soldiers was published
with the eye-catching headline: “Assaulted Chona is told: it’s not news,” the
story said Chona had tried to publicize the assault in the London newspaper
but was told it was not news, even after he had explained who he was.134 The
attack certainly made news for African Life.

Later in his message congratulating the newspaper for being the first all-
African newspaper in Central Africa, Kaunda said there was much about
African life that other people who came to make homes in the country did not
understand. He emphasized the need for a vehicle to convey and interpret the
way of life of the African – politically, economically, socially and culturally. The
UNIP leader went on:

There is another reason why I welcome African Life. Because of the

powerful propaganda machinery in the hands of the powers that be,
our people have come to accept the present colonial order of things
as art of the divine order. Your African Life will be serving a useful
purpose to the entire community if it provoked clear re-thinking. As
we are at present our society is sterile and needs rejuvenating.135
132 African Life, 1 November 1959

133 Ibid. January “A”1960, p.1

134 Ibid 1960, p.1

135 Ibid 30 September 1960, p. 1., letter to the editor.

83
Press in Zambia
African Life was so overwhelming pro-UNIP that by reading it one got the
impression that the other major African Party, A.N.C., did not exist. Indeed ANC
often complained of lack of publicity. One such complaint was voiced by the
party’s secretary-general Job Michelo, who was quoted as having said that the
African Press was no longer asking his party for interviews and permission to
attend meetings but went to him every Monday morning asking, “We hear
you had a big meeting, how many people attended? What did you discuss?”
According to the newspaper, Michelo swore never to cooperate with such a
press.136

But Kaunda at times also used the newspaper to clarify news items he thought
had been misrepresented by the White Press. An instance is the following
statement he issued exclusively for African Life with the heading “The Truth
About ‘Mau MAU’. This is What I Said – Kaunda”:

On 9th February 1961, in London I issued a public statement headed

“My People are tired” in which I warned that should Welensky and the
British Government continue to frustrate the legitimate aspirations
of the African people of Zambia there may result a mass rising in
Northern Rhodesia, which by contrast, would portray Mau Mau as a
child’s picnic.

Since my return from overseas I have learnt that some small minds,
greatly aided by the Argus Group of newspapers, and certain
Government officials her are trying to use that statement in
propaganda war against my party…137

It is interesting to note that African Life never directly took on the White press,
leaving that task to its sister and brief contemporary, African Mail. Ironically
enough. Wina’s newspaper did on one occasion scold the Mail itself. In its 30
April 1961 issue, five months before it suddenly ceased publication due to
hard economic realities, the newspaper came out in defense of UNIP secretary-
general Munu Sipalo who had been attacked by the Mail on a point of political
strategy. In a commentary, “Life Replies to Mail,” the newspaper concluded
with the aspiration:

…It would be extremely refreshing to find out who runs the African
Mail.138

136 Ibid. February “A” 1960, P.6. “No Interest in us Cry.”

137 Ibid. 31 March1961, p. 1.

138 Ibid. 30 April 1961.

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PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

(Central) African Mail: 1960-1965

Once again Dr. Alexander Scott played a notable role in founding yet another
newspaper. Its name was Africa Mail, which later become Central African Mail
and was in 1983 Zambia Daily.

Figure

85
Press in Zambia
Early in 1960 Scott asked Richard Hall, the managing editor of the information
Department publications, if he was interested in starting a newspaper with
him. Hall declined because he thought Scott lacked the capital to adequately
finance a newspaper. Shortly thereafter, however, Hall, through a friend,
Anthony Sampson, approached David Astor, editor of the London Observer,
who agreed to help finance the newspaper with funds from his own Cushion
Trust. Astor initially provided 100,000 pounds, with which the three men-
himself, Scott and Hall – established African Mail Ltd., the company that
published the African Mail.139 Hall become the Editor.

The new 24-page weekly tabloid rolled off its sheet-fed press in Lusaka on 23
February 1960 to join the moribund African Life as the only other pro-African
independent newspaper in the country. Its first press run was 13,000 copies.

In appearance, African Mail was a brighter and better edited newspaper than
African Life, a quality that made it a conspicuous rival of the well-established
White press with which it constantly crossed swords as will presently be
shown.

In its news columns, African Mail did something that no other African
newspaper had done before: it gave wide publicity to African nationalist,
both at home and elsewhere in Africa. The newspaper had started at a time
when the spirit of independence was sweeping through Africa for the first
time. Among countries that had either already gained independence or were
about to, were Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa and three East Countries of
Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The rest of unliberated Africa,
including Northern Rhodesia, was anxious to gain its political freedom too. The
African Mail played a key role in stimulating this favour in Northern Rhodesia
in particular and in the Federation as a whole. It devoted much space to telling
Africans what their brothers and sisters had achieved or were about to achieve
by way of political emancipation. Most of this information was published in a
regular full-page feature called “Inside Africa.”

The newspaper’s coverage of world news as a whole, however, was rather

scant. For a long time it did not have teleprinter facilities or correspondents to
furnish it with news from overseas.140
Within two years after it had started, African Mail’s circulation nearly doubled
to 24,000. it circulated so widely not only in Northern Rhodesia but also in the
Federation that its proprietors changed its name to Central African Mail. By
139 Hall said in the interview that he had only nominal share in African Mail Limited

140 Kelvin Mlenga, interview, Lusaka, April 1978. Mr. Mlenga joined the then Central African Mail as deputy edi-
tor in September 1962. he was editor of the newspaper from February 1963 to February 1966, a year after the
newspaper had been taken over by the new Zambian Government.

86
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

this time also a special Southern Rhodesia edition of the newspaper was being
published. This edition differed with the main edition only in the front page
which carried more Southern Rhodesia stories.141

Although it gave wide coverage to political news from Africa as a whole, the
Central African Mail was still very much a Northern Rhodesia newspaper. It
published a lot of local news, especially from the African townships along the
line of rail towns. Every issue had a center spread of news pictures under the
general heading, “Mail looks at Life.”

Central African Mail become famous for its lively columns. One of them was
“Tell me Josephine,” a letters column in which a make-believe, young African
woman. Pictured speaking through the telephone, answered readers’ four-
letter-word problems.142 There were chit-chat columns too and an attempt
was made to serialize a local cartoon.

On the more familiar political scene, the Central African Mail had power full
columnists in the persons of Titus Mukupo and later, Kelvin Mlenga.143 until
in November 1962 when its author resigned from the newspaper, Mukupo’s
column, “Titus Talking” was very outspoken and influential. So influential was
it that it sometimes yielded reactions from decision-makers. The following
example of an editorial headed “Mail Assured” illustrates this point.

Following a comment on poor African housing in Lusaka’s Kabwata

surburb in the Mail last week (Titus Talking), the Lusaka city council
has assured the Mail that it is ‘doing its best under circumstances” to
improve African housing in the city.

A spokesman of the Council said that while the council cannot say
when the little huts will be replaced it can assure the Mail that the
huts are “definitely on the way out.”

We will wait and see. If it appears that action is taking too long the
council can expect further fuss. These huts must go now. They belong
to the past.144
141 The change was accompanied by some staff changes. Titus Mukupo, who had been features editor,
became editor, while Hall, hitherto managing editor, withdrew from the paper’s day-to-day running to become
editorial director. Production editor was Tanner Malinki.

142 Barbara Hall has revealed in Barbara Nolen ed., Africa is People, with an introduction by Dr. Mercer Cook,
former U.S ambassador to Niger, Gambia and Senegal (New York: E.P. Dutton. The letters and “Josephine’s”
replies were so interesting that they were later published in book form.

143 Before he joined the African Mail, Mr. Mukupo was secretary-general of Nkumbula’s A.N.C but left the party
at about the same time that Kenneth Kaunda and others broke away.

144 Central African Mail, 31 July 1962.

87
Press in Zambia

Mlenga’s column “Kelvin Calling” which he started on 13 November 1962 after

Mukupo had left the newspaper was equally outspoken. But perhaps even
more hard-hitting were the newspaper’s open letters to several prominent
politicians, both in Northern Rhodesia and outside. Among the targets were
Roy Welensky, Nyasaland’s Dr. Hastings Banda and Paramount Chief Lewanika
of Barotseland.

A farmer’s page was introduced on 11 September 1962 to complete the

Central African Mail’s generous array of contents. An editorial introducing the
page read:

The Mail believes that the Northern Rhodesia must develop its
agriculture. We do not produce enough to feed our people now, and
the population is rising all the time….
We want our feature to help in some way, so that farming will become
a career to offer a good living, and strengthen the country.145

The Central African Mail’s editorial policy was generally to support UNIP, the
principle African political party in Northern Rhodesia at the time. But this
support was not “all the way” as in the case of African Life. It was qualified.
When some UNIP leaders made what the newspaper’s editor thought were
outrageous statements, they were sharply criticized. Thus the newspaper stood
firm on its strong condemnation of one party official who had proclaimed
early in 1960 that a gang of UNIP members who had murdered Mrs. L. Burton
and her children were heroes. It was clear the newspaper wanted only to
support the positive aspects of African nationalism. It often assured Whites
that they had nothing to fear from an imminent African Government. One way
of doing this was by portraying UNIP leaders as responsible family men and
citizens instead of the thugs that Whites thought they were.146 Page spreads of
pictures of them and their families were published regularly, especially those
of party chief Kaunda.147 The newspaper staff, was as a matter of fact, very
close to the top UNIP leadership. Mlenga, for example, never failed to interview
Kaunda face-to-face every Monday.148

As had already been indicted and as will be seen in detail shortly, the Central

145 18Ibid. 11 September 1962

146 This was the picture that the White press had painted

147 The Mail was the first newspaper to affectionately refer to Kaunda by the initials “KK”

148 Mlenga. Interview.

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PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

African Mail strongly opposed Welensky and the Federation. Just as the White
newspaper labelled African nationalists thugs, the Central African

Mail called Welensky names. Welensky must have felt the sting of the
newspaper’s attack for as early as February 1961 word had leaked that he was
contemplating ordering his soldiers to move into the Mail’s offices, arrest the
editor and close it down. He chose instead to file criminal libel proceedings
against the newspaper. The suit was not prosecuted, however, partly because
the Northern Rhodesia courts had no jurisdiction and the party because the
Government did not want to involve itself in the matter anyway.149

The Northern Rhodesia Government unofficially sympathized with the Central

African Mail’s stand against Welensky and the Federation. A number of leading
colonial civil servants in the territory, including the Governor Evelyn Hone,
resented the Federation. They were, therefore, happy to have the newspaper
saying things they wanted to but could not easily say about the Federation
and Welensky.150

Regarding the newspaper’s support for militant UNIP, Hall says the Northern
Rhodesia Government officially was sympathetic to the newspaper. The
Government regarded the feelings expressed by the Central African Mail as
reflective of the Africans as a whole and saw the newspaper’s role as that of
safety valve.151

In spite of its editorial success, the Central African Mail was not economically
viable. Hall gives several reasons why the newspaper never broke even up to
the time the Zambian Government took it over in MAY 1965.152

First, the mechanical equipment was too inferior to permit efficient production.
The sheet-fed press, in particular, required a lot of labour to operate.

Second, distribution was not efficient. Effects were made to distribute the
newspaper to far-flung rural areas like Mwinilunga, Luangwa and Kasama, but
the cost of hauling papers to these places was great. Besides not all the money
from the sales was collected.
149 Central African Mail, 21 May 1965, article, “I Remember,” by Richard Hall. In the interview, Hall said Welen-
sky later changed his suit to a civil libel which was settled.” After much trouble.”

150 Hall says while he was in the Information Department as managing editor, Chief Information Officer for
Northern Rhodesia, Christie Lawrence, received a truckload of Federal Government propaganda literature from
Salisbury for distribution. But Lawrence directed a driver to dump the leaflets in the Luangwa river and then
wrote Salisbury a nice letter to the effect that the literature had been distributed:

151 Ibid

152 operated, and still operates, on government subsidy mainly because of lack of advertising.

89
Press in Zambia
Finally, but even more important, because of the newspaper’s policy of
opposing Welensky and the Federation and supporting UNIP, many White
businessmen did not advertise in it. Recalling the difficulties he faced in
wooing White advertisers, Hall said:

It (Central African Mail) suffered from a virtual boycott of advertisers

most of whom were based in Salisbury or South Africa and regarded
the thing (the newspaper) as hopelessly pro-African from their point
of view. And so they just didn’t advertise with us very much. We found
it very hard going to get advertising, indeed, even though I had a
White advertising manager based in Salisbury and I quite deliberately
picked somebody who was notably right wing in order to try to get
somebody who have credibility with the White advertisers. But it was
very hard. Only when we got near independence, when they saw that
we were on the winning side, did they start to change their tune.153

Little wonder then that the Central African Mail, despite its strong anti
Federation and anti-Welensky editorial policy, had to stop to publish United
Federal Party advertisements. On a number of occasions in 1962, the newspaper
published full-page advertisements of the line-up of U.F.P election candidates.
By way of contrast, the strongly pro-White Northern News, the Central African
Mail’s main rival, never published a similar advertisement on UNIP candidates
which the Central African Mail also carried.

Central African Mail vs. The Northern News

The conflict between the Central African and The Northern News needs to be
looked at closely because it typifies, to a great extent, the relationship between
the independent newspaper which supported Blacks and the White press

The Northern News became the first daily newspaper in Northern Rhodesia
on 5 January 1953, with a circulation of over 8,000 copies. By the time the
Central African Mail started as a weekly, The Northern News was still the only
daily and its circulation had grown to slightly below 14,000. the circulation of
the Central African Mail in 1962 was 24,000.154 as previously stated, the Central
African Mail was a 24-page tabloid while The Northern News was a broadcast
of usually 8 to 12 pages. Thus by both size and circulation the two newspapers
were somewhat comparable. In other respects, they were entirely different in
that one was a daily serving mainly about 70,000
153 Hall, interview

154 In the interview, Hall gave the circulation of The Northern News at the time of independence – October
1964 – as 14,000. he was appointed editor of the newspaper in May 1965. The Central African Mail, as we have
been, claimed in its 27 Februarys 1962 issue that its circulation was 24,000.

90
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

Whites while the other was a weekly ostensibly serving an African population
(in Northern Rhodesia) of more than 2,500,000.155

All factors considered, it seem that Rosalynde overstated the case in saying:

…As a weekly, though it (Central African Mail) remained but a punny

rival for the daily Northern News, champion of Welensky and the
Federation, and of White rule in Southern Africa.156

Both the Northern News and Central African Mail seem to have been aware
of their influence whenever they propounded their diametrically opposed
policies, particularly on politics. Each seem to have been conscious of the fact
that it represented not only its own views but also those of the particular racial
group and/or political party is supported.157

Yet the conflict between the two newspapers, though real, was an undeclared
war. Each consciously tried to counteract the other’s position by high lighting
its own. Thus, on one hand the Central African Mail called on UNIP and ANC
to unite so that independence would come quickly, while on the other, The
Northern News declared that Africans were not ready for independence
because they were not yet civilized.158 Again, The Northern News pronounced
as fair the 15-15-15 Constitution for Northern Rhodesia of 1962, which was
unfavourable to the African nationalist demands for outright majority rule.
The Mail in turn proclaimed that the Constitution was like a pit latrine – the
more one dug into it, the more it stank.159

Surprisingly enough, the two rival newspapers rarely called each other names.
Even more surprisingly, there were some occasions, though extremely rare,
when the two papers actually agreed. One such instance was when both
Newspapers condemned the top UNIP official, referred to above, who had
declared the Burton murderers heroes.160

155The population figures are based on press reports at the time e.g. Central African Mail, 6 November 1962,
“Reasons why I Lost – Kaunda,” p.3. The number of Africans who could read a newspaper in English was un-
doubtedly much lower than 2,500,000 because not only was the rate of literacy low but the number of African
who were able to read and understand English reduced potential readers even lower.

156 In the interview, Mlenga agreed with these opinions.

157 Central African Mail and The Northern News editorials of 13 February 1962 respectively

158 The Northern News and Central African Mail editorials of 1 and 6 March 1962, respectively

159 9Ainslie, The Press in Africa, p.96

160 The Northern News, 27 January 1962 and Central African Mail, 23 January 1962 respectively.

91
Press in Zambia
The Roman Catholic Church Press Plays Peace-Maker Role

Excesses in both opinion and news presentation by the pro-African and the
pro-White newspapers, as each tried to outdo the other, brought in a need for a
third kind of newspaper – one whose role was to act as referee or peacemaker.
The Roman Catholic Church took the opportunity to assume that role when
it started its first national English newspaper in Northern Rhodesia, a weekly
tabloid called The Leader, on 28 April 1961. it was published in Lusaka by the
Church’s own Teresianum Press161

In a policy statement in the first issue, The Leader made its peacemaker’s role
clear to all. It stated:

One of the most valuable assets any country can have is a truly
independent press, and “The Leader” will be a completely free forum
for all the existing political parties in the Territory. As when new
parties start up-and it would be nice to see one founded openly and
without shame on straight Christian principles-they will be invited to
use the page.

The publishers will soon issue a personal invitation to all the leaders
of all the active parties in the country to appoint correspondents to
“The Leader” … I can be easily imagined that such a page without
limitation on the contributors could soon turn into a journalistic
jamboree. So there will be limitations … Contributing parties must
agree to use the forum on a diplomatic level. They will not be allowed
to attack either individuals, or, in most instances, other political parties.
But they are cordially invited to put forward their own views on the
question of the day …162

This was clearly a stand that no national newspaper in the country had taken
before. It was also a stand that was out of tune with the political climate in
the country where Welensky’s Federation was making its dying kicks. Most
Africans were impatient to finish off Welensky Federal Government as a
prelude to independence, while most Whites were desperately trying to
prevent the very thing Africans were pressing for. The few on both sides who
preached a course of compromise, like The Leader, were regarded on both
sides as political misfits.

161 The newspaper became a broadsheet on 25 August 1961

162 The Leader, 28 April 1961, p.3

92
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

Figure

93
Press in Zambia
The Leader promised to keep clear of obscenity, blasphemy and sedition by
reporting “constructively” on se, religion and politics. It pledged to give Africans
“truthfully represented” news that would give them a true idea of their place in
the world. Finally, The Leader said it would work for the betterment of African
journalists through on-the-spot training and by taking a leading role in the
Society of African Newspaper Editors, of which it was a member.163

On the Latter point, although its editors purported to teach their African staff
journalism, The Leader was rather badly edited even by the standards of its
contemporaries. One of its conspicuous flaws was its penchant for editorialized
headlines. Two examples:

Legco Moffat-Kaunda Polemic

Had Promise But
Was Fouled by
Much Political Blat

The “Sandy J” Document

Reads Like a Fake
And is Probably
‘Planted’ on Africa164

The Leader devoted much attention to political news and commentaries. Its
main editorial theme was the encouragement of dialogue between Black and
White politicians. Little space, either for news or editorializing, was given to
religion and sex. On the latter subject, the only editorial touching on it was one
condemning polygamy.165

Hard economic realities, it would seem forced The Leader to close on 17

August 1962 – 16 months after it had started. The print order for the last issue
was 7,000 copies.166

Seven months later, however, the Roman Catholic Church again started
another weekly, The Northern Star.

163 Ibid. The editor was not an African. He was an English Jesuit priest named Robert Thomson

164 Ibid. 8 and 15 September 1961, respectively.

165 Ibid. 28 July 1962

166 According to the official announcement in the newspaper’s final issue, publication was suspended “due to
financial staffing problems, “The Leader, 17 August, p.1

94
PRIVATELY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS FOR AFRICANS: 1957-1965

The Northern Star appeared at a time that marked a political watershed in

the country’s history. Thousands of jubilant Africans all over the country were
celebrating the end of Federation at rallies where symbolic coffins, containing
Federal Government documents and draped in black cloth, were buried. An
African majority Government was in power; Prime Minister Kenneth Kaunda
was stressing the need for love, reconciliation and unity among the country’s
multi-racial community. Independence was just 19 months away.

The editor of this new Catholic newspaper was an American layman Alexander
Macdonald. His deputy was Tanner Malinki, previously mentioned. The two
men announced that The Northern Star would provide a rapidly widening
African readership with an objective, weekly report of political, economic and
social development in the country and the rest of the world. They assured
readers that although the newspaper was endorsed by the Catholic Episcopal
Conference of Northern Rhodesia, lay people were to be responsible for both
policy and production

There was another American on the staff, Glenda Wina, a Black American and
wife of Sikota Wina.

The Northern Star was the first newspaper in the country, avowedly to practice
interpretative reporting as a matter of policy. Not only did the paper cover
news without partisan or racial bias, like The Leader, but it also made it a point
to interpret the news it reported.

The Northern Star often manifested the social responsibility theory of the
press in its editorials.167 one such editorial read in part:

The modern press came in for quite a savage attack in the British
House of Lords a few days ago. Lord Baldwin, son of the former prime
minister Stanley Baldwin, was harshest of the Parliament critics.

Should the present editorial trend of British Press continue, he said,

the level of intelligence of newspaper readers would be reduced to
that of poultry. He charged that the “empty brightness” of the press
was dulling men’s minds and making readers “paper-drug addicts.”
Another speaker, Lord Balfour, called upon the London press to
abolish printing “the memories of prostitutes, convicted criminals
and other highly undesirable persons”

Unfortunately the criticism is only too well merited. In the race for
167 Theodorre Peterson et al., Four Theories of the Press (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978) pp.37-103.

95
Press in Zambia
higher and higher circulation figures, too many newspapers have
tossed the social responsibility (emphasis added) that properly rests
upon the press and have pandered to the grosser side of public taste.
“We give them what they want to read.” Is the usual justification.

This is the explanation of sensationalism, the emphasis on crime

and violence and sex in today’s newspaper. This is “gut” reading. It
naturally attracts readership because it is the material appealing to
baser elements of human nature. If people demands such material, it
follows that the demand will be met. To responsible journalism, it is
unfortunate only that it is done in the name of “newspapers.” What
Lord Baldwin is probably alluding more especially to is the practice
of making the immaterial seem significantly, of “sugar coating” the
substance of the day’s news so that it is more readily palatable. Surely
there is argument for simple, dynamic presentation of what is going
on the world but it is reduced day after day to the brightness” of which
Lord Baldwin speaks, it must inevitably lead to a point of nausea.
The Star makes a modest effort to avoid this change. It ventures to
publish passages of solid type that admittedly demand the effort of
concentration…168

The Northern Star took definite stands on sensitive issues, political and other,
rather than assume the peacemaker role of its predecessor. For example, it
called for the dissolution of the tenuous first Black Government made up
of UNIP and ANC. It called for a strong, clear majority government.169 The
newspaper also condemned the new National Progress Party(N.P.P) saying
that is was no more than the United Federal Party (UFP) resurrected. “we have
no pity for it. It is a remnant European party which should not hope to attract
Africans, “ The Northern Star declared.170

On 16 January 1964, The Northern Star announced that it had become a

fortnightly news review and ceased to be a newspaper, in October of the same
year, however, it ceased publication for lack of funds.

The following chapter will deal with the amalgamation of this three legged
national press into an almost unified press owned almost entirely by the
Zambian Government

168 The Northern Star, 7 June 1963

169 Ibid. 19 April 1963

170 Ibid. 10 May 1963

96
6
Introduction
BACK TO GOVERNMENT NATIONAL
NEWSPAPER: 1963-1975
Finally this chapter will survey the transition from privately-owned national
press to one almost totally owned by the state. The discussion will center on
the relationship between the state and the two surviving national newspapers,
the Times of Zambia (which superseded The Northern News) and Zambia Mail
(which supersede the Central African Mail). Factors that led to the taking over
will be discussed.

An unprecedented rate of newspaper consolidation took place in 1964 – the

year Northern Rhodesia became independent Republic of Zambia. the South
African-based Argus Group together with its Southern Rhodesia-based
subsidiary, the Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company, withdrew from the
new nation-to-be as newspaper publishers. They feared that the pro-White
record of their newspaper would have repercussions in the attitude of the
new Black Government to them. They also wanted to avoid embarrassment
since they were based in countries which Zambia’s new leaders considered
unfriendly.171

The first newspaper the Argus gave up was the Central African Post, on 28
February 1964. it was incorporated into The Northern News, another Argus
newspaper. In an official statement, John Hennessy, general manager of the
Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company, said the more was the first step in
rationalizing the company’s newspaper activities in the country to allow The
Northern News to play its full role as the country’s national daily newpaper.172

But before the Post disappeared it provided, in 1953, an occasion for the
leaders to affirm freedom of the press when John Roberts, leader of the
opposition and president of the N.P.P brought a motion before the Legco
for the Black coalition Government to affirm freedom of the press. Robert’s
motion came after Kenneth Kaunda, UNIP leader, Prime Minister, and Minister
of local Government and Social Welfare, had reported threatened to suppress
Northern Rhodesia newspaper if they did not change their attitude. According
to the Post, Kaunda warning was a reaction to a report in the newspaper about
what it thought was a pending UNIP split on tribal lines.173

171 Richard Hall in the interview said the Argus Group sold The Northern News “because they didn’t know how
to handle that new scene. Although they had tried to change The Northern News just prior to independence,
they knew that the past wouldn’t be forgotten and they would inevitably lack credibility.”

172 Central African Post, 31 January 1964, p.1.

173 IIbid. 23 January 1963, editorial. But even before Kaunda’s warning, African Legco. Members had repeatedly
called on the White press to change its attitude.

97
Press in Zambia

The debate on Robert’s motion, however, unexpectedly ended with both side
easily agreeing and strongly affirming press freedom. Kaunda made on more
important reservation, however. He told the house:

All the same I also hold the view that the freedom of the press does
not mean that the press has a right to publish whatever it desires
without taking into consideration its own responsibilities to society
which it purports to serve

Kaunda’s parliamentary secretary and UNIP publicity chief, Sikota Wina, was
even more explicit on the feelings of the new Government towards the Argus-
owned White press. He said:
This history of newspapers in the country right from their
establishment has been to serve a minority group, the European, and
now that things have changed hands, the so-called wind of change
has blown, the newspaper find themselves in a bit of a spot. “How
can we change overnight? We still get our advertisement revenue
from the European section because the Europeans are still in charge
of firms and companies, but at the same time we have now got an
African coalition government. How can we commit this change-over
without losing our advertisement revenue?”

Therefore you will find, Mr. Speaker that the press today still suffer from
the nostalgia for the past, lives in fear for the present and completely
confused about what to do in future…174

As indicated above, Wina’s observation was a fairly accurate analysis of the

position of the Argus Group and its subsidiary. No amount of assurance by the
Black Government could allay the company’s fears of the known future.

Next, in December 1964 the Argus sold The Northern News itself to the
London Rhodesia Mining and Land Company (Lonrho) for 200,000 pounds.
Ironically, Lonrho too, although based in London , had connections with a
South African mining conglomerate called Central-Mining Rand-Mines Group,
which in turn had a big financial stake in the Argus Group. Moreover, Lonrho’s
Africa headquarters were in Salisbury, as were those of the Rhodesia Printing
and Publishing Company, the Argus’ subsidiary.

Shortly before acquiring The Northern News, Lonrho also bought Northern
Rhodesia’s only other daily newspaper, the Zambia Times and its Sunday

174 Northern Rhodesia. Legislative Council Debates Vol. 106-7 (January 1963): 432-35

98
Introduction
version, Zambia News, which was also the country’s first and only Sunday
newspaper. Max Heinrich, an enterprising White businessman, had started
the two newspapers in Kitwe on the Copperbelt in August 1965, heavily
subsidizing them with profit from his prosperous brewing enterprise. He was
maker of an opaque beer popularly known as Chibuku.

Lonrho did not purchase Zambia Times and Zambia News for their own sake.
Rather, they were part of a package deal for Heinrich’s business. The two
newspapers were the first ones to be owned by Lonrho, which was founded in
1909. newspaper publishing was not one of the 27 objectives of the company
listed in its articles of association.175

By buying Heinrich’s businesses Lonrho thus found itself also the owner of
a pair of money-losing newspapers which nevertheless had built up much
goodwill among African in the country as a result of having identified
themselves with the African cause right from their first issue. In doing this they
were more believable than the other White newspaper, such as The Northern
News, which, although they were trying to change with the times, had an anti
African record behind them.

The following editorial in the Zambia Times, headed “What the press stands
for,” reflected the tone of Heinrich’s newspapers:

…The press supports important projects and helps to rally support

for Government schemes which rely on the people for success. The
press uses its power to expose those elements who openly or secretly
oppose Zambian nationalism and show that their work is public
knowledge and they must suffer its consequences.

Where racialism abounds, the press exposes it and reports

Government retaliation as warning to other. The press stands as a
friend and guardian to Zambia, popularizing its hopes, recording its
successes, and exposing its foes.176
With such a policy, Heinrich’s short-lived newspapers were just the type
the new African Government found agreeable. It was no surprise, therefore,
that when the Salisbury-based Lonrho managing director, Roland Rowland,
wanted to close down both the Zambia Times and the Zambia News, the
Government, whose opinion he had sought, advised him at least to keep the
Sunday newspaper. He did precisely that. He closed down the Kitwe plant

175 5Republic of Zambia, National Archives of Zambia, Registrar of Companies, Foreign Company No. 63, File
Acc. 92/12.

176 Zambia Times, 7 December 1964

99
Press in Zambia
and moved Zambia News to The Northern News plant in Ndola where it
continued under the same name.7 Rowland killed the Zambia Times but
cleverly renamed The Northern News the Times of Zambia, to inherit the
goodwill of the Zambia Times, it would seem. The Times of Zambia first
appeared on 30 June 1965. apparently as part of the strategy to revamp the
poor public image of the former Northern News, Lonrho also appointed as
editor-in-chief none other than Richard Hall, founder of the pro-African and
pro-UNIP Central African Mail. In accepting his appointment, Hall expressed
great optimism in the Government’s liberal democracy which allowed true
and constructive press freedom that was a significant contrast to some so-
called advanced countries where honest journalism was in danger of being
whittled away.177
Hall, whose appointment was publicly welcomed by President Kuanda,178
immediately set out to improve the newspaper’s public image by“Zambianizing”
it both in staff and content. He hired some Black Zambian reporter, weeded
out “colonial-mined” White staff members and recruited only sub-editors with
politically progressive views. He also discontinued the Reuters via South Africa
news service and brought in the Reuters Africa service, which contained more
general news about Africa.

I generally tried to change the paper to make it a paper of Zambia

readers (White and Black) and not a paper of White settlers.179

In his first editorial, Hall wrote that he believed the first duty of the press was to
inform the public, honestly and without bias, on all matter of importance.

We believe that a newspaper must maintain the right of free comment,

in the conviction that sincere and constructive criticism can only be
good…180

The main editorial thrust of the Times of Zambia under Hall was to vehemently
oppose Ian Smith’s U.D.I in Southern Rhodesia, repeatedly calling on Harold
Wilson’s Labour Government in Britain to bring it down by force. Almost every
other editorial in the newspaper was a diatribe against either
10 Hall, interview Smith or Wilson or both.
177 Its name was later changed to Sunday Times of Zambia

178 The Northern News, 19 May 1965, editorial

179 In a message of congratulations the President told Hall: “As editor and then editorial director of the Central
African Mail, you have played a very important part in the creation of our new Republic of Zambia. now as edi-
tor of the country’s only daily newspaper you have yet another role to play in the development of our country.
I have no doubt… that you will accomplish your new duties with vision, wisdom and foresight, “The Northern
News, 20 May 1965, p.1

180 Times of Zambia, 1 July 1965

100
Introduction
Figure

Figure

101
Press in Zambia
The stand of the Times of Zambia was sometimes the same as that of the
Zambian Government. President Kaunda once complimented the newspaper
for its reporting of the Rhodesian U.D.I. crisis. He told a rally that he had publicly
castigated the newspaper in the past, but on the Rhodesian situation it had
done “wonderfully well.”181

However, even on the Rhodesian issue the Times of Zambia was not in complete
agreement with the Government. On 23 July, for example, the newspaper’s
editorial declared: “Shame on Government for allowing copper to go through
Rhodesia.”

Times of Zambia also condemned the President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah,

as a director and welcomed his overthrow in an editorial on 25 February 1966.
the Zambia Government, on the contrary, was strongly pro-Nkrumah and for a
long time did not recognize Ghana’s military rulers.

At home the newspaper generally supported the Government but reserved

the right to criticize it. The Government on its part accepted criticism when
it felt it was justified and constructive. At the rally referred to above President
Kaunda said he agreed with the newspaper’s editorial criticizing the withdrawal
of passports from Edward Liso, the acting ANC leader, and Prince Mubita, a
member of the Barotse royal family. The editorial had said that while there
must have been good reason for the withdrawals, even though no reasons
were given, such measures should be taken with great caution and only after
the closest examination.182

In 1965, the Times of Zambia had declared that the Government was acting
foolishly by trying to repeal the law that forbade demand of party cards.183 and
when the law was repealed, the newspaper constantly opposed UNIP’s card-
checking campaigns in which people were asked to produce their UNIP cards
before using public facilities like buses and markets. The practice was in line
with the party slogan, “it pays to belong to UNIP.”

Again, in April 1966, the Times of Zambia, still under the leadership of Hall,
virtually accused the Government, in three consecutive editorials, of practicing
racism in reverse by not restricting the leaders of striking Black miner as it
had done to the leader of the White miners, Frank Rzechorzek, when Whites
had struck two months earlier.184 the accusation brought a sharp rebuke from
181 Ibid. 1 August 1966

182 Ibid.

183 Ibid. 8 August 1965

184 Ibid. 5,6 and 7 April 1966

102
Introduction
President Kaunda, who told a national development seminar he could not
tolerate such a press. “if we had a racial approach how many Europeans could
we still have here?” he asked.185

In still another instance, the newspaper disagreed with UNIP national council
that the big fire in Kitwe in 1966, in which fuel storage tanks were gutted was
caused by sabotage.186

By late 1966, Hall had become so alienated to some member of the Government
that public attacks on the newspaper by the officials was becoming routine.
One of the strongest came from Home Affairs Minister Chona, who accused
the newspaper of “flagrant sensationalism…and conducting a deliberate
campaign to stir up and foment strife in Zambia by publishing incorrect
reports.” Chona charged that the paper was deeply engaged in anti-Zambia
propaganda emanating from London. Hall took strong exception to Chona’s
outburst, which had been occasioned by a report that a certain Italian who
tried to enter Zambia without proper documents had been “deported.” “This
very grave charge is totally untrue I bitterly resent it,” Hall wrote in an editor’s
note. “We have done our utmost to promote harmony.”187

In March 1967 a crowd of about 150 UNIP youths demonstrated outside the
newspaper’s main offices in Ndola carrying placards some of which read: “Hall
of Times of lies is a mental home candidate for calling up stupid,”“Hall why can’t
you control your young stupid journalists, some of them are spies,”“There is no
pace for newspaper subversion in Zambia.” A party official standing on the
roof of a Government Landrover fitted with Loudspeakers threatened: “Before
this Government is upset, this building is going to be upset.”188

A few days later Hall editorialized:

…Of late all manner of accusations have been made against this
newspaper. The support and encouragement it has give and will
continue to give on a wide variety seem to be ignored. A newspaper
by its very nature must expect to be in the firing line. It must face
anger when it airs displeasing views. This is fair enough. But it is
also entitled to a balanced verdict. Of course, it is possible to ban a
newspaper – as has regrettably been suggested. But its loss will soon
become desperately apparent.
185 Ibid, 17 September 1966. The Black mine workers’ leaders were later restricted.

186 Ibid 2 November 1966

187 Ibid. 19 November 1966.

188 Ibid. 10 March 1967

103
Press in Zambia
Finally, we feel bound to comment upon most unjustified allegations
that there are sinister motives or sinister forces behind this
newspaper

Figure

104
Introduction
when it says seething displeasing. The truth is that this is an
independent journal in the real sense. Neither the owners nor any
other body direct of influence the contents of the newspaper. The
known and accepted foundation of policy is support the Government
and Zambia’s progress.189

According to Hall, Lonrho never interfered with the editorial policy so long
as the newspaper made a profit, look good and was no good terms with the
Zambian Government , particularly President Kaunda.

…If he (Rowland) though I was getting an well with the President

that is all he cared about. He never tried to influence me to take
anything out or put anything in. even when he was trying to get the
pipeline contract in East Africa (from Tanzania to Zambia) when it was
very important to him to get that contract, which he didn’t get, which
went to the Italians, he could have used the Times of Zambia to put
his case to the Zambian Government. He never did actually. He never
actually tried.

And I once had some letter to the editor which said Lonrho was the
organ of neocolonialism… I put a footnote and said, “ The Times of
Zambia neither know nor cares what Lonrho thinks on any subject.”
The next time I saw Rowland he said, “oh, very good Dick, We thought
that was a great joke.”

He only objected towards the end when it was clear that I had
fallen out in a serious was with some elements in the Government,
particularly over that Lusaka affair (in which the Times of Zambia
condemned the stoning of a butchery from which the wife of Vice
President Reuben Kamanga had bought rotten chicken) when I had a
police guard on my house (in Ndola).190

In September 1969 Lonrho confirmed that it gave complete

freedom to newspapers it controlled in Africa. The statement
came from a Lonrho spokesman who was commenting on
a London Daily Mirror story which said the company was
embarrassed by a Times of Zambia criticism on Nigerian
President General Yakubu Gowon while Lonrho was
negotiating a K40 million oil tanker deal with Nigeria.

189 Ibid. 16 March 1967

190 1Hall interview.

105
Press in Zambia
The Mirror said: “The outcome of negotiations now depends,
it seems on the firmness with which Lonrho makes it clear
they do not control the editorial policies of their newspaper.

The Lonrho spokesman said the Times of Zambia had amply

demonstrated its editorial independence. he added:“No self-
respecting editor would look to his proprietors for purely
editorial guidance. “Times of Zambia. 16 September 1969,
p.1

On 27 August 1965, the Government-owned Zambia Mail published the

following story under the heading “Suppressed?”

The manager of the Lonrho newspaper in Zambia, Mr. Hugh Leeds,

denied today that he had personally ordered the removal of a story in
the Times of Zambia involving a man of the Lonrho-owned Heinrich
Syndicate brewery in Luanshya. The papers editor, Mr. Richard Hall, is
now in London on staff-recruitment drive.

According to informed sources, the story was to have appeared in

the paper yesterday (Wednesday). The sources said the management
ordered it withdrawal on Tuesday night. It is said that the orders
came from “above”. Lonrho headquarters are in London and there is a
resident director in Salisbury. Mr. Leeds said the story was “not true,”
in a telephone interview with the Zambia Mail.

“Where did you hear it from?” he asked.“There are always leakages of

things happening in every firm,” he was told. Mr. Leeds snapped back:
“You will be ill-advised to file the story because it is untrue.”

Reporters now say the paper’s staff in Ndola is “upset” by the incident.
One said it was the first time censorship had been imposed in Zambia.
the Government of Zambia ha never done it, he said..”191

A few days later, the Lonrho resident director in Zambia, Tom Mtine a Black
Zambian apologized:

I have made a full investigation into the allegation of “news

suppression.” The withdrawal of a report from the paper last week
was without reference to the editorial staff …

191 Zambia Mail, 27 August 1965, p.1

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Introduction
This isolated incident was an unfortunate and regrettable error of
judgement, which had not received the sanction of the board of
directors. It in no way reflects board policy towards the Times nor the
Zambia News.

We are running this newspaper as a business venture our editorial

staff is fully qualified to decide the editorial contents, and produce a
newspaper which gives the best of value to the readers…. It is the aim
of the board that the Times of Zambia shall be entirely free from any
interference, so that it can carry out its responsibilities, as the country’s
national daily newspaper, in a sincere and honourable manner.192

Table 7 by and large confirms what Hall said about the Times of Zambia having
a basic policy of support for the Government. Yet this was not the general
impression the paper gave. Between 1966 and 1970, the newspaper carried
more editorials in support of Government than against it. But the gap between
the two grew narrower from year to year, becoming narrowest in 1969, when
editorials “for” were only three than those “against”. The number of editorials
which were neither critical nor supporting the Government also decreased
over the years, indicating that the newspaper gradually become more direct
on matters involving Government. Moreover, many of the editorials critical of
the Government were so strongly worded that they tended to obliterate any
good will image the positive editorials created. To make matters worse, the
newspaper generally published, as Table 7 shows, more editorials critical

192 Times of Zambia, 31 August 1965, p.1

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TABLE 7

TIMES OF ZAMBIA (INDEPENDENT), ANALYSIS OF EDITORIALS ON THE

GOVERNMENT AND UNIP

1966 1967 1968 1969 1970

Editorials 3 Jan to 3 Jan to 1 Jan to 1 Jan to 31 2 Jan to 31
30 Dec 30 Dec 25 Dec Dec Dec
About
Government

For… 79 69 17 41 41
Against… 68 53 28 38 30
Neutral…. 23 12 4 7 6

About UNIP

For….
Against… 6 3 3 3 4
Neutral… 8 8 4 14 3
2 2 2 4 10

*note that the figures here are only for part of the year

of the ruling party, UNIP, than it did in support of it. Finally, the fact that
the newspaper was foreign-owned tended to magnify its criticism of the
Government and UNIP. Thus, overall impression created was that the Times of
Zambia was an anti-Government newspaper.

Consequently, the Government resented the Times of Zambia, especially its

editor Hall. By the middle of 1967, it became clear that Hall, once a favourite
editor of many leading Black politicians in the country, had fallen out of favour
in Zambia. fearing the newspaper might be banned, Hall resigned saying he
was going on six months leave to write a book. Lonrho readily obliged him193
Dunstan Kamana, the Black Zambiam194 who succeeded Hall proved even more
outspoken. In the first six months of 1968, Kamana wrote far more editorials
critical of Government than in support of it. In all of 1969, Kamana published
only three editorials supportive of UNIP compared with 14 that were critical.

Like Hall, Kamana strongly objected to the recruiting methods of some party

193 Hall did in fact write the book Zambia during the period. But he knew at the time he was leaving that he
would never come back to his post as editor.

194 Hall had renounced his British citizenship and became a Zambian Citizen.

108
Introduction
officials in barring members of the public from using public facilities like
markets and buses (the bus company belonged to the State) if they did not
produce their current UNIP membership cards. He also vehemently opposed
the party’s campaign to stop girls from wearing mini-skirts, branding as thugs
the party youths who carried out the campaign by forcefully lowering girls’
hems.

Kamana was, indeed, a ruthless and often sarcastic editorial writer. He regarded
his role as that of an opposition to the Government, since the ANC was now so
weak that it had even ceased to be the official opposition in Paliamnet.195

Kamana criticized the Government for abolishing special fee-paying wings in

hospitals. He maintained that a policy of completely free medical care would
lower standards of health facilities in the country.

Kamana’s favourite way of replying to the newspaper’s critics was through

editor’s notes. The following two examples were typical:

1. …And the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Grey Zulu had some hard
words for the Times of Zambia for publishing the oath-taking story
– “before checking it.”

195 On 16 March 1971, Kamana told member of Kitwe lions club that far too few people were prepared to
speak their minds in public; that the burden of constructive criticism against the Government was being
brought to lie squarely on the shoulders of the press: that in a country like Zambia where there were only two
papers, the shoulders of the press might one day prove to be not broad enough to bear the daily pressure
thrust upon them from various quarters. Times of Zambia, 17 March 1971, p.1.

109
Press in Zambia
figure

110
Introduction
He said: “I an terribly disappointed with the Times of Zambia, I cannot think of
anything to be termed more as the height of folly and irresponsibility than a
newspaper prepared to publish an article in which the Head of State and the
police have been mentioned, but declines to check the truth of the story with
them…”

If the Government has no confidence in its District Governors and thinks they
deliberately lie – to meetings of several hundred UNIP members as well as the
press – then it should deal with the Governors not with us.

Mr. Zulu is himself a Government official; in view of his remarks would he

expect us to check the truth of his own utterances, printed here, before
publishing?….

We offer Mr. Zulu a counter-challenge: he denies the report – let him tell us
why.

The public has had enough of this evading of responsibility by senior people. If
Mr. Zulu has nothing more concrete to offer, he should keep quiet. – Editor.196

2. Zambia Newspapers (the company that publishes the Times of

Zambia and Zambia News) was attacked yesterday for printing a
story which said hotels in Lusaka would not be able to cope with
the flood of delegates to the forth-coming non-aligned conference.
The Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and Tourism, Mr.
Amock Phiri, said the story, published in the Zambia News last Sunday
was calculated to embarrass the Government.

“ It suggested the Government had decided to hold this important world

conference before it had made sure accommodation could be provided
for the delegates,” he said.“This is something we cannot tolerate.” Mr. Phiri
demanded to know the name of the reporter who wrote the story. He
wanted the reporter to tell him which hotel had issued the statement. And
he threatened that unless the name was revealed the Government would
take “disciplinary action” against Zambia Newspapers… The newspaper
was not supposed to publish such stories without discussing them with
the Government, he said. The story had embarrassed the Government in
the eyes of the world…..

Mr. Phiri’s statement is the most ungrateful and certainly the most
unenlightened to be made about this newspaper in the recent past

196 Times of Zambia, 7 January 1970, p.1

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 Press in Zambia
by a person of ministerial rank who better than most. The least Mr.
Phiri – a former lecturer at the University of Zambia- can do is to
attend one lecture with our journalism students in Ndola to learn
the rudiments of journalism ethics. Should he be unable to make the
journey, we are sure his colleague the Minister of Information, Mr.
Sikota Wina, himself a journalist, will give him the assistance he needs.
In the meantime, we calmly wait to se the extent of the power vested
in this angry Minister of State. –Editor.197

Throughout 1969 the outspoken Kamana was, however, more favourable to

the Government than he was to UNIP as a party, in line with Lonrho policy for
the newspaper to be ion good book with the Government. The following year
he drastically reduced his criticisms of the ruling party as well.

Unlike Hall, Kamana joined the Zambian Government in condemning Ghana’s

military rulers who had overthrown Nkrumah.198 Again unlike Hall, he also
supported the Government’s “painful decision” to import maize from rebel
Rhodesia and South Africa, saying the nation had to be fed.199

Early in 1968, President Kaunda nationalized several of the nation’s key

industries in line with his Philosophy of Humanism. As already indicated,
in his “Mulungushi Economic Reforms,” Kaunda announced that the State
was to purchase 51 percent controlling shares in the companies. He also
invited Lonrho through Zambia Newspaper to sell 51 percent shares to the
Government saying:

It is not right that these major means of informing the public should
be under foreign control. I should be happier if at least 51 percent of
Zambia Newspapers Ltd. Were in State ownership. I do not intend
that newspapers should be operated by Information Department
nor do I wish them to be run by State company. I an anxious under
democracy and humanism to create some national body of truly
Zambia organisation which will operate these newspapers. I don’t
want, I repeat countrymen to confine all important all important
media of communication to Government. This would be wrong if we
are to build strong democracy here and aim at doing that. We must
allow these newspapers to be in other hands but those hands must
be Zambian. Such an organisation, as I say, must be Zambian but

197 Ibid. 22 April 1970, p.1

198 Ibid. 28 June 1969

199 Ibid. 14 July 1971

112

30Ibid. 14 July 1971

Introduction
divorced from the Governement.200

But Lonrho, as will be seen shortly, did not respond to the President’s request
until eight years later, June 1975.201 In the meantime, the Times of Zambia and
its weekend version The Sunday Times of Zambia (formerly Zambia News)
continued to be outspoken independent newspapers under the editorship of
Kamana.

Sometime toward the end of 1970 or early 1971, The Sunday Times of Zambia
started a series on sex education to which UNIP and the Government took
strong exception. But Kamana persisted and continued running the articles,
which sometimes carried nude photographs and/or illustrations

One such photograph was published on 17 January,1971 with an accompanying

story about a British film for school children, The picture showed a nude couple
embracing. The story was headlined: “The Very Bare Facts-for Schools.” The
picture carried a caption reading: “The sort of scene the children will see.” The
news story accompanying the picture said a daring new film showing a couple
making love was to go on release soon for school children. The story said the
film called. “Growing Up” had a no-hold barred fifteen seconds sequence in
which a young husband and wife are seen having intercourse. The film was to
be shown in classrooms all over Britain to help teach children the facts of life.

Strong protests came immediately from the Government, accompanied by

demands by UNIP that the newspaper be banned. Minister of information
Sikota Wina warned that the Government would take the “most extreme”
measures against the Sunday Times if it continued to publish picture of nude
men and women under the “false guise” of sex education. He said not only was
the general public disgusted at the sex series, but that its publication violated
the law prohibiting publication, possession or redistribution of obscene
literature. Wina also said that he had earlier warned Kamana that nude pictures
were contrary to African customs and morality.“What may be good for Europe,
may not be necessarily good for Zambia.” he said. “ In fact what appeared in

200 Republic of Zambia, Zambia Towards Economic Independence, Address by His Excellency Dr. K. D Kaunda,
President of the Republic of Zambia, to the National Council of the United National Independence Party, at
Mulungushi, 19 April 1968, p. 39

201 In September 1968, a spokesman for the Ministry of Parliament Affairs announced that Zambia News-
paper was to merge its assets and activities with those of the Zambia Publishing Company (the company
publishing the Government-owned Zambia Mail). The new company was to produce a daily newspaper and
a Sunday or bi-weekly publication. According to a newspaper story, Kamana, who had just been appointed
Zambia Newspaper editor-in-chief, was tipped to become the editor-in-chief of the new company which the
spokesman said completed the negotiations between Government and Lonrho on integration of the press in
Zambia. but the new company, for some reason, was never actually formed. Times of Zambia, 21 September
1968, p.1

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Press in Zambia
the Sunday Times of Zambia is not journalism but sheer pornography.”202

The UNIP Parliamentary caucus (of which Wina happened to be the chief
whip) met and called on the Government to ban the Sunday Times of Zambia.
The caucus strongly condemned the newspaper for its serialization of the sex
articles.203

Kamana responded in the Times of Zambia with the following editorial set in
8 point bold type face and one and half columns long.204

It will be a very sad day indeed when a whole Government makes a

public confession of its inability to see beyond the buttocks of a naked
woman. For surely if the Zambian Government, at the instigation of
the UNIP caucus, bans our sister paper The Sunday Times of Zambia,
then once again emotion will have replaced reason.

It will unfortunately, not be the first time when this nation has allowed
itself to be shaken to the core over an inconsequential issue…

And now the publication of a nude photograph has caused an

important party caucus faced with a heavy parliamentary programme,
which includes among other things, our Budget for 1971, to divert its
attention from major issues and to draw up a recommendation based
on a complete misunderstanding of what the newspaper, now on the
verge of being banned, was trying to do. We should be failing in our
duty if we did not state in clear and simple language the newspaper’s
case. It behoves us to do this since the government and the ruling
party have decided to make a public issue of the articles on sex The
Sunday Times has so far carried.

To begin with, it is generally accepted that throughout the world

serious thinkers, psychologists and educators are debating among
themselves whether or not sufficient has been done to educate
people about sex. In other words there is a school of thought which
feels that sex education has been neglected in the past.

202 Times of Zambia, 18 January 1971, p.1

203 Ibid. 19 January 1971, p.1

204 Times of Zambia editorials nearly always filled the far left column of the front page and were set in 7pt
bodoni

114
Introduction
Figure

115
Press in Zambia
The controversial “Bare Facts” picture which illustrated a sex education
feature. It nearly caused the Party and Government to ban the Sunday
Times of Zambia which published it. Part of the picture has been cut
off to avoid offending some people. Because of this some people in
countries like Britain have spent years of research in trying to find out
the best way of teaching sex.

It is plain common sense that no serious minded person would put in

years of research just to end up with a nude picture. For sure he can
see nudity if he so wishes without having to labour intellectually for
such log periods.

Nearer home we know that a team of educator have had first look
at the question of sex education. They have prepared a report and
the contents of that report are yet to be known. Do we want to scare
them off?

Over and above this, some of the mentally agonized people who have
made their way to Chainama (Mental) hospital are suffering from
nothing more than being unable to understand the “nudimentary
aspects of sex”

Need we point out that a number of educational institutions have

lost some of their most promising female students who have got
pregnant before the conclusion of their courses?

But what the above goes to show is that a problem does exist and
that some countries, including Zambia, have began to look for ways
and means of solving it.

The Sunday Times of Zambia has done no more than point out
this fact. It has not even suggested that Zambia should follow the
methods that other countries like Britain are considering. Not even
has the suggestion been made that the newspaper is the best forum
for this purpose. Researchers should provide the answers.

What the Government must understand is that it is one thing to object

to publication of material it does not want. It is another to cover up
a problem which they know to exist, for shelving the problem is no
solution at all.

Like the Government, research fellows can be very sensitive people.

116
Introduction
They need sensitivity in order to keep in touch with the people
among whom they research. But they do not want to be scared away
from their work by a Government which does not wish to distinguish
between what it likes to see and what the true facts, however
abhorrent are. For these are necessary for people to know.

The emotional reaction to The Sunday Times may have the unfortunate
effect of scaring away educators whose research may still be far from
complete.

Above all let the Government show some measure of consistency.

In some of the Government’s own hotels, women entertain diners

to striptease shows, Senior Government people when abroad are
among the last patrons at night clubs where nudity from stripping
models is nothing new.

In Lusaka there have been persistent cries for night clubs. High level
committee including Government officials have been formed to look
into this. Is this all in aid of morality?

It is quite easy these days to buy a reputable publishing company in

this country magazines, passed by the Government’s own censorship
board, counting nude photographs of far less educational value
than The Sunday Times picture that illustrated a story about a film
designed for young children in Britain.

But before concluding we feel duty bound to draw the attention of

the Government that the question of sex education is not one which
only concerns Zambia. it is a world problem. The Sunday Times of
Zambia has not tried to tell this Government how it should go about
it, as there is no doubt in our minds that some people in Government
know more about the subject than we do

It is therefore essential to remember that, like any other medium, the

Sunday Times of Zambia has a job to increase awareness amongst
members of the public about what is going on in the world. The
readers of the Sunday Times are something like 120,000. those who
do not want them to know what the rest of the world are doing
consists of far less than 100.

Let it be made clear that the crime this newspaper has so far

117
Press in Zambia
committed is to bring about an awareness among members of the
public, of an issue which is rapidly demanding the attention of the
entire world. If for this crime The Sunday Times must receive its death
sentence, so be it.

But we feel sure that the Zambian Government does not want to go
down in history as one which lost its head when confronted with
nakedness.36

The Sunday Times of Zambia was not banned, but President Kaunda pointedly
referred to the editorial four year later, on 30th June 1975, when he announced
that UNIP had taken over completely the Times of Zambia and The Sunday
Times of Zambia. on that occasion he said the editorial had insulted a party,
Government and a President elected by the people.31 it also probably

37Times of Zambia, 1 July 1975.

The party took over 100 percent shares in the two newspapers and 60
percent in Printpak, the commercial printing wing of Times (formerly Zambia)
Newspapers cost Kamana his job for late 1971 the President, after consultations
with Lonrho, removed him from the editorship of Times Newspaper. He was
replaced by Vernon Mwaanga, a career diplomat, who had been Zambia’s
Permanent representative to the United Nations. Kamana later succeeded
Mwaanga at the U.N.

Mwaanga whose appointment was hailed by UNIP, had no illusions about

his new post. In his first editorial, which was a tribute to his predecessor, he
pointed out that an editor of a newspaper, if he was doing his job properly,
did not set out to head the popularity stakes. It was not possible to please all
the people all the time. He reminded readers that a newspaper did not make
the news. It only reported what happened and commented on what it felt
was right or wrong in relation to certain events. This was not only the right
thing to do in terms of journalistic ethics but was also good for the country.
an establishment, like the Zambian Government, that was prepared to allow
constructive criticism was a healthy one. Mwaanga pledged to do his utmost
to continue Kamana’s “good work.” He said Kamana had demonstrated great
courage, fortitude and loyalty to the Government, the Party and the people of
Zambia which was hard to emulate.205

For the next three years the Times of Zambia under Mwaanga assumed a less

205 Times of Zambia, 5 January 1972

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Introduction
adversarial role in its editorials than it had done under Kamana.206 Although
Mwaanga’s editorials were critical in their own way, they lacked the forcefulness
and strong language of his acerbic predecessor.

Several important developments took place between 1972 and 1973 which
had a direct influence on press policy in the country as a whole, but affecting
the Times of Zambia in particular.

First in January 1972, while Mwaanga was away, the Government summarily
deported one of his assistants, Vernon Wright, a New Zealander, apparently for
an editorial on the military coup in which the President of Ghana, Kofi Busia was
toppled. Attributing the coup to bad economic policies, Wright commented
that “Zambia facing an uncertain economic future, could do worse (sic) than
note Ghana’s lesson very carefully, not because of the military factor but
because there is a point in which the economic well-being of the common man
will override the demands of his political affiliation.” It was the first time the
Zambian Government had deported a foreign journalist presumably because
of what he had written.207 The deportation, no doubt, had a chilling effect
on the There was no official announcement that Wright had been deported
because of the editorial he wrote. On the other hand, the Government never
issued a statement to assure the press the Wright’s deportation had nothing
to do with his job, as it always did in the extremely rare cases when journalists
were deported. Other foreign journalists on the staff, such as Mike Pierson,
managing editor, and Geof Chapman, Chief sub editor.

Second in August 1972, the Government organized the first national mass
media seminar, an event which in many ways marked the turning point in the
history of the press in the country. Held in Lusaka, the two-day conference was
attended by nearly all the country’s journalists from both print and electronic
media, information officers and public relations personnel.

Journalism and Humanism

In a lengthy (6,140 words) “brutally frank” address to the journalists, President

Kaunda castigated them for failing to reflect Zambian society and for
sometimes conducting themselves as if they were an alternative Government.
Henceforth, he announced, the mass media were to be an instrument of nation
building. Too many members of the news media still lived in the colonial past,
too many of them were still caught up in the cobwebs of the so-called ethics
of journalism, a lot of which were no more than colonial myths designed to

206 In an interview in April 1978 in Lusaka, Mwaanga was critical of the confrontation policy of Kamana.

207 Times of Zambia, 17 January 1972

119
Press in Zambia
mislead young Zambians in order that they could work against Zambian
interests in furtherance of foreign interests, said Kaunda.

The news media everywhere else in the world reflect the interest and values of
the society they serve, the President told the assemble journalists. Capitalists
news media project the philosophy, value and interest of capitalist society and
the Communist media do likewise for their societies.

I therefore, now ask you: where do you belong? Which society are
you serving? For you have a duty tot the people of this country. You
have a duty to the Humanist society which we are building. This is the
society you must serve.

President Kaunda said it was tragic to think that people who criticized the
party and Government, or the scatterbrains who had some “monstrous ideas,”
were given more space in the Zambian news media than those who put
forward constructive proposals. He said the party regarded the news media as
an instrument for nation-building, not for creating confusion and strife or for
national destruction.

Freedom of the press, he said, is based on the right of people to know, to have
access to information. It is not for the newsmen to describe what the people
are to be informed about. He called on journalists to avoid sensationalism
and to present both sides of the news. He expressed hi disgust in seeing that
stories about house-breaking, arson, rape and conflicts between chiefs made
tremendous front-page headlines in the Zambian press, just as they had done
in 1964 at the time of the country’s independence. positive news items had
been placed down. Such news-gathering has no relevance to the country and
its people Kaunda concluded.

The two-day seminar unanimously endorsed the President’s remarks and

issued several recommendations.208

In an editorial the Times of Zambia said the seminar address signified the
President’s, the party and the Government’s apparent discontent with the way
the press had been behaving itself. “But as the President conceded yesterday
not everything about the mass media has been unmitigated trash,” the Times
noted somewhat defensively.209

The third development that had a strong influence on the press was the fact

208 See Appendix XV

209 Times of Zambia, 2 August 1972

120
Introduction
that Zambia became officially a one-party state in August 1973. the new
constitution, like the old one, included freedom of expression among the
fundamental rights and freedoms the state was to protect. The article on
freedom of expression read:

Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment
of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions without
interference, freedom to communicate ideas and information without
interference (whether the communication to be to the public generally
of any person or class of persons) and freedom from interference with his
correspondence.

Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to
be inconsistent with or in contravention of this article to the extent that it is
shown that the law in question makes provision –

(a) that is reasonably required in the interests of defense, public

safety, public order, public morality or public health
(b) that is reasonably required for the purpose of protecting the
reputations, rights and freedom of other persons concerned
in legal proceedings, preventing the disclosure of information
received in confidence, maintaining the authority and
independence of courts, regulating educational institutions in
the interest of persons receiving instruction therein.
Or regulating the technical operation of telephony, telegraphy,
posts, wireless, broadcasting or television: or
(c) That imposes restrictions upon public officers;

And except so far as that provision or as the case may be the thing
done under the authority thereof is shown not to be reasonably
justifiable in a democratic society.210

210 Republic of Zambia, Laws of Zambia CAP 1, Constitution of Zambia Part III Article 4. See Appendix XVI

121
Press in Zambia
Figure

But unlike the old Constitution the new one declared:

There shall be one and only one political party or organisation in

Zambia, namely the United National Independence Party (in this
Constitution referred to as “the Party)…..

Nothing contained in this Constitution shall be so construed as to

entitle any person lawfully to form any political party or organisation
other than the Party, or to belong to, assemble or associate with, or
express opinion (emphasis added) or do any other thing in sympathy
with, such political party or organisation.211

The Constitution of the Party (which is appended to that of Zambia)

stated that all members of the Party had an obligation and duty to
refrain from criticizing publicly the Party or any member thereof
in relation to its or his activities in the Party, but to report alleged

211 Ibid. Part 1, Article 4, See Appendix XVI

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Introduction
shortcomings to the appropriate committee of the Party to which
the reported member will be entitled to answer the allegation in
person.212

In its standing orders, the Party listed as an offence against it:

Publishing or causing to be published, orally or in writing, any matter

which in the opinion of the Central Committee or the National
Council is an attack on the Party or an attack on a member or official
of the Party in relation to the discharge of his functions as a member
or official of the Party.

Fourth, the state of war that existed between Ian Smith’s illegal Government
in Rhodesia and Zambia was virtually an undeclared state of emergency since
1964 up to Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Thus the Zambian Government
was always sensitive, and justifiably so, to any published news touching on
Rhodesia, particularly if it appeared in the independent Times of Zambia. On

46Ibid. Standing Orders, Article 37, Section 5, Paragraph (m). The Party
constitution was applicable to pressmen because they too were supposed
to be members of the Party and subject to its regulations. Newsmen were
sometimes summoned before the Party’s disciplinary committee like when,
during the editorship of Mwaanga, a Times of Zambia reporter (not this
writer) appeared before the Committee with the Minister of Labour and Social
Services, Mr. Wilson Chakulya, following story in the newspaper in which
Chakulya alleged that the editors of the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily
Mail were tribal in their approach to journalism

occasion, President Kaunda either praised,213 or chastised214 the national

papers regarding the information they put out on Rhodesia. He also held
regular meetings with the editor-in-chief of Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily
News and the Government-owned Zambia News Agency to brief them on
sensitive matters as well as to answer questions.

This, then was the background in which Mwaanga and his successor in 1974,
212 Republic of Zambia, Constitution of the United National Independence Party, Chapter II, Article 5

213 Times of Zambia 11 October 1974, p.1

214 Ibid. 11 December 1974, p.1

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Press in Zambia
Milimo Punabantu, operated until June 1975 when, as stated above, the
takeover of the Times of Zambia and The Sunday Times of Zambia by the ruling
party was announced. It was also the background in which the Government-
owned Zambia Daily Mail operated.

The three journals had grown over the years, Table 8 indicates, to became the
country’s largest circulating newspapers

Zambia Daily Mail: 1965-1975

Early in 1965, the Government expressed concern at the prospect of one

foreign company – Lonrho – owing all the national newspapers in the country.
Lonrho then owned The Northern News (Times of Zambia), Zambia Times and
Zambia News.215 The only other national newspaper outside its orbit was the
Central African Mail.216 In fact, Lonrho had tried to buy this newspaper too but
was initially put off by the then Central African Mail editorial director, Richard
Hall, who set what Lonrho thought was an excessive price of 100,000 pounds,
which Hall said David Astor would ask for since it was the amount the latter
had initially invested in the newspaper.217

In January 1965, Minister of Information Peter Matoka issued a statement

in Parliament in which he said the Government would not sit back and let
one company monopolize Zambia’s press and television media.218 Less than
a month later President Kaunda announced that the Government planned
to publish a newspaper that was to provide a forum for expression of free
thought.

It will not only be simply a Government trumpet. I will not allow it to report my
every cough…..

215 Lonrho also owned the country’s only television station in Kitwe on the Copperbelt.

216 The Livingstone Mail, which Lonrho bought in March 1966 to 60 sovereigns and incorporated in the Times
of Zambia, was at this time only a small local journal.

217 Hall, interview

218 The Northern News, 22 January 1965, p.1

124
Introduction
figure

125
Press in Zambia
TABLE 8
CIRCULATION OF TIMES OF ZAMBIA, THE SUNDAY TIMES OF ZAMBIA
AND ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL

Year Northern News/ Zambia News/ African Mail/ Central

Times of Zambia The Sunday African Mail/ Zambia
Times of Mail/Zambia Daily
Zambia Mail
1944-1947 2,00 per year - -
1948 2,200 - -
1951 5,000 - -
1952 8,000 - -
1954 10,000, - -
1960 - - 13,000
1961 20,000 - -
1962 - - 24,000
1965 21,388 - 20,000
1966 25,000 17,000 25,000
1967 31,000 22,000 -
1968-1970 37,000 per year 29,000 -
1971 31,000 20,000 27,611
1972 31,000 20,000 25,121
1973 31,000 20,000 32,382
1974 60,000 65,000 30,758
1975 60,000 60,000 42,300
1076 51,546 53,000 37,900
1977 53,879 54,000 41,000
1978 62,084 65,000 49,800
1979 66,193 71,000 55,500
1980 63,676 68,437 39,100
1981 60,259 61,205 38,600
1982 63,858 63,941 35,000
1983 - - 35,400

SOURCES:
1. Editor and publisher international Yearbook: Times of
Zambia/The Sunday Times of Zambia figures 1965-1975
2. Zambia Publishing Company registers: Zambia Daily Mail,
1971-1975.
3. The rest of the figures were obtained from various newspaper
reports.

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Introduction
We want to establish a paper that will be informative – that will
be able to say that I should do a little more at the moment. It will
be something with dignity, not designed to mislead the people,
something to serve Zambia.219

The editor of the Central African Mail, Kelvin Mlenga, obviously aware that
the newspaper the Government had in mind was his own, welcomed the
announcement rather cautiously. He said the President’s view would bring
a new type of journalism which African in character would be of as high a
standard as any in the world. “Of course this is an entirely new concept in
African journalism and cynics may dismiss it as an unworkable sort of idealism,
“Mlenga commented somewhat cryptically.220

In May 1965, the Government officially announced it would buy the Central
African Mail.221 when the deal was completed two month later, the Government
, surprisingly, paid Astor only 40,000-60,000 pounds less than he had initially
invested in the newspaper.

In his handover message, Astor said he had discussed the future of the
newspaper with President Kaunda a few months previously in London and
they had agreed about the need for the Central African Times to continue as
a responsible and courageous newspaper, dedicated to the fair reporting of
news and free exchange of ideas “without fear or favour.”222

Astor wrote: “now that Zambia has acquired its independence, I am entrusting
the future of the Mail to the care of the Government and I look forward to the
paper playing a valuable role in the future of the country.”223

The Central African Mail under its new ownership first came out as a
Government weekly on 6 August 1965 with a circulation of 20,000. it was also
the last the newspaper was published under that name. Welcoming the new
journal, the Minister of Information Lewis Changufu said in a statement the
intention of the Government was to make the newspaper a lively, stimulating
and readable newspaper. He did not want it to be a dull catalogue of official

219 Ibid. 19 February 1965,p.1

220 Ibid. 20 February 1965, p.1

221 Ibid. 31 May 1865, p.1

222 ”Without fear or favour” was the motto of the Central African Mail. It was temporarily dropped in favour of
Zambia’s national motto “One Zambia One Nation” when the newspaper, as a Government journal, changed
to Zambia Mail. Later , however, the newspaper reverted to its old motto which in 1983 read: “we serve the
country without fear or favour.”

223 Central African Mail, 30 July 1965.

127
Press in Zambia
announcements, lacking impact, and ultimately rejected by its reading public.

The newspaper would reflect public opinion of all shades in Zambia, he

promised, suppressing no comment or criticism or viewpoint which was
sincere and constructive (italics added), since conflict and controversy were
the lifeblood of a newspaper and the main basis of its influence on its reading
public.224

Earlier, Changufu had warned Government officials against giving the Mail
editor orders.

…If I heard of anybody, even a Minister going in the Mail’s offices and
telling the editor what to do or not to do I should have a serious talk
with him.225

Ironically, Mlenga resigned as Zambia Mail editor in February 1966 because he

failed to adjust to the idea of editing a Government newspaper. A white man,
William Dullforce, succeeded him.226

The Zambia Mail was run by a board of directors appointed by the Government.
The first board members included the papers former editor Titus Mukupo,
director of Information Services, as Chairman, Unia G. Mwila, Parliamentary
Secretary Ministry of Mines and Cooperation, D.J Lewis senior officer Ministry
of Information and Postal Services, and M. Yeta, director of Zambia Cultural
Services.

As Table 9 shows, the Zambia Mail in its first year was hardly critical of
Government in its editorials, thereby earning itself the nickname “Government
Gazette.” In that year, the newspaper almost completely avoided editorializing
on UNIP. Beginning in 1967, however, the Zambia Mail became more and more
critical of Government and continued to be increasingly so up to and beyond
1975.

The paper’s stand towards UNIP, however, remained low key, with the
newspaper avoiding party controversy whenever it could. This is indicated, for
example, in Table 9 by the large number of “neutral” editorials on UNIP in 1968
and 1969

224 Ibid. 30 July 1965, p.1

225 The Northern News, 18 June 1965, p.1

226 See page 109 above , footnote, 13. In the interview already referred to Mlenga said: “I have left the Mail
because I believe strongly in freedom of the press. I had been used to hard-hitting writing which is my style
but when Government took over, I found myself in a void. I found myself a rebel without a course.”

128
Introduction

But generally the Zambia Mail was usually critical for a Government newspaper.
In fact, on a number of occasions it embarrassed the Government by coming
out with editorials contradicting or at least differing from official Government
thinking.

When South African Prime Minister Hendriek Verwoerd was assassinated in

September 1966, President Kaunda sent condolences in which he said that
although Verwoerd had been one of his bitterest political opponents, he
nonetheless mourned his death. But the Zambia Mail declared in its editorial:
“We cannot join in mourning for Verwoerd who died a death he richly
deserved.”

TABLE 9

ZAMBIA MAIL (GOVERNMENT), ANALYSIS OF EDITORIALS ON THE

GOVERNMENT AND UNIP

1966 1967 1968 1969*

Editorials 7 Jan. to 30 6 Jan. to 29 2 Jan. to 27 3 Jan. to 31
Dec. Dec. Dec. Dec.
About Government
For……
26 10 28 41
Against…..
1 8 7 14
Neutral…..
2 3 5 7
About UNIP
For…..
0 4 3 4
Against……
0 1 1 5
Neutral…..
1 0 7 6

*The newspaper started daily publication on July 15, 1969.

The newspaper disagreed with government over its measures to eradicate

prostitution, saying its level in the country at the time did not warrant police
vice squards.62

The Zambia Mail criticized the Government’s educational policy, calling for a

129
Press in Zambia
system that would involve all the nation.227
The newspaper also found fault with excessive central Government red tape
challenged the administration to speed up decisions.228
The Zambia Mail became a daily newspaper on 15 July 1969. in an editorial
that marked the occasion, the journal explained its editorial policy thus:

…As a Government newspaper, owned ultimately by the Zambian

people, the mail is completely committed to the development and
progress of the nation and improving the lot of the common man. In
fulfilling this role, it will aim at giving full and accurate coverage to the
Government plans and policies. It will try to explain these policies to
the people and win support for them.

It will defend the Government when necessary, but it will not white
wash Government departments, when mistakes are made. For the
Mail has another role to play: to reflect public opinion and to voice
the feelings of the people. In doing this, it will not censor or suppress
criticism which is sincere and constructive…

It hopes to reflect both the problems and the aspirations of its readers
and it will not shun controversy.229

An outstanding illustration of the newspaper’s attempt to carry out this dual

mission occurred earlier in September 1967, when it published a long letter
by a reader under the banner headline, “Immorality at Varsity Campus on the
Increase.” The letter was written by Francis N. Manda and published on 15
September. It charged that immorality among students at the University of
Zambia was on the increase. There was a scramble for girls, often resulting
in fist fights, Manda alleged. In reaction to the letter, University students
demonstrated both against the Government, which was the publisher, and the
newspaper itself. They first marched to the Minister of State for Presidential
Affairs Aaron Milner, and demanded that he expel Dullforce from the editorship
of the Zambia Mail, Milner replied:

As I understand it the protest is calculated to bring pressure on the

Zambia Mail to suppress a section of the public opinion. In most
countries students conduct demonstrations in order to get the
authorities for greater press freedom. You here, however seem to be

227 Ibid. 24 September 1969

228 Ibid. 14 November 1969

229 Zambia Daily Mail. 15 July 1969

130
Introduction
the odd exception.230
Figure

230 Times of Zambia , 4 October 1967.

131
Press in Zambia
Dissatisfied with Milner’s reply, the students marched to the Zambia Mail
offices carrying posters which read: “To hell with Zambia Mail which promotes
to build destruction,” “Yankee editor scram,” and “C.I A controls the Zambia
Mail.” They ordered Dullforce to “go back where you came from,” pelting him
with stones and tomatoes before police controlled the situation.

In an editorial Dullforce replied:

…We on the Mail find the student’s doings this week to be scarcely
credible. That students of all people should demonstrate against
freedom of the press! What does their fiercely aggressive and
intolerable reaction to criticism expressed, not by this newspaper, but
by members of the public signify?

We respect that this is the first time in the history of the press that
anyone has demonstrated against a “Letter to the Editor” column. The
Government has set no curbs on freedom of the press in this country.
It has indeed directed the Zambia Mail to “reflect public opinion of all
shades in Zambia suppressing no comment or criticism or viewpoint
which is sincere and constructive.” This the Mail does in part by
printing readers’ letters, including those expressing views which are
not shared by the Mail or which are critical of the Government.231

It is interesting to note that between 1965 and 1969 the Zambia Daily Mail,
although published by Government, was not officially recognized as the
Government mouthpiece. The recognition came only at the beginning
of 1970.232 but even after it had been made the official Government organ,
the newspaper’s editorial and new policy remained somewhat critical and
independent of Government. To this effect President Kaunda, replying to
University of Zambia students, who had expressed anger with some of the
editorials in the newspaper, said.

The Mail is not Pravda. The Mail leader writers can express whatever
opinion they wish.233

231 Zambia Mail, 6 October 1967

232 Quoted from Falcon Group, 7 Years of Progress (Ndola: Review Promotions Ltd., 1971), p.101.

233 Times of Zambia, 8 January 1970. p.1

132
Introduction
THE POST-INDEPENDENCE CHURCHES PRESS: THE
“LITTLE” MIRROR: 1972-1983

It took the church in Zambia eight years – from 1964 to 1972 – to establish
another national newspaper. The paper, the Mirror,234 proved a much more
successful journal than its two predecessors The Leader (1961-1962) and The
Northern Star (1962-1964). It started with a circulation of 50,000.235 by 1983,
the Mirror, now renamed National Mirror was a well-established fortnightly.

The 16-page tabloid started as a monthly in January 1972 under the

proprietorship of Multimedia Zambia, the communications organisation of
the Christian churches in the country. Obviously mindful of the fates of its
predecessors, it promised to succeed, though aware of the fact that it was hard
to keep newspapers solvent in Zambia.236

In its first policy statement, the paper declared that it would be “non-aligned”
with no political affiliations, free to praise or criticize where praise or criticism
was due. It was not going to be a “pious” churchy paper for the pious churchy
people, but would be published for those outside as well as inside the church.
It would reflect Zambia to the world and the world to Zambia, as a monthly
newspaper, the Mirror said it would be a paper of views rather than news.237

Later, the newspaper amplified its editorial policy in a five-point plan. First, it
stood for propagating Christian principles based on the Gospel message in
the fields of politics, economics, education and the whole social and industrial
range of the country’s life.

Second, it was to keep the public informed of the work being done directly
and indirectly by the Church for all sections of the community both within the
country and throughout the continent.

Third, the paper promised to endeavour to co-ordinate the political thinking

of all parties so as to bring about the maximum amount of intelligent co-
operation of all for the general good of the community

Fourth, it pledged to exercise diligent scrutiny on public affairs at all levels and
to encourage the acceptance of Christian principles in the conduct of these
affairs by reflecting the nation to the nation
234 The newspaper changed its name to National Mirror in May 1979

235 National Mirror, January 29 – February 11, 1982 p.4. “The Birth of the Mirror”

236 Mirror, January 1972 editorial.

237 Ibid p.1

133
Press in Zambia
Finally, the Mirror said it would encouraged readers to became actively
interested in the wide social issue as well as the political ones as a method of
training them for true citizenship and acceptance of responsibility.238

True to its word of being a paper of views rather than news, the Mirror carried
very little hard news. Its articles were mainly opinion pieces in which it spoke
its mind (or at least the mind of the writers) on issues affecting the nation.

UPP IS BANNED
NOW LETS TACKLE THE PROBLEMS

In the dawn swoops of Friday 4th February, some 120 alleged UPP
supporters were rounded up and carried into detention. At 7.10 that
morning, in a dramatic broadcast to the nation, President Kaunda,
speaking from State House, declared the United Progressive Party a
banned organisation.

Nobody can have been surprised by these events Many had been
demanding such action ever since UPP was formed last August. It
says much for President Kaunda’s patience that he resisted these
demands for nearly six months.

In that half year UPP had ample opportunity to declare policy…239

From 1972 to 1979 when it was a monthly, the Mirror was more of a magazine
than a newspaper, often out with thematic issues which spotlighted a particular
issue in Zambian society.

Some of the issues which the newspaper highlighted included agriculture

and rural development,240 copper mining,241 tourism,242 progress since
independence,243 against beer drinking, 244 women in Zambia,245 road

238 National Mirror, March 13-26, 1981 editorial.

239 Mirror, March 1972, p.1

240 Mirror, July 1972

241 Mirror, August 1972

242 Mirror, September 1972

243 Mirro, October 1972

244 Mirror, October 1971

245 Mirror, May 1973

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Introduction
accidents,246 world population explosion as it affected Zambia,247 African
contribution to the synod of Catholic bishops in Rome,15 and against
contraceptive pills.248

It contained leisure reading material in regular feature sections like “Mirror

Women” “Gardening” “Children’s Page” and an intermittent problem-solving
column called “Your questions Answered” in which readers, mainly teenagers,
wrote in to have their sex problems answered. The column at one time was
called “Tell me Rosemary” apparently in imitation of the famous “Tell me
Josephine” column of the African Mail.

The newspaper for a longtime published a cartoon strip called “Bashi Dudu,”
drawn by an upcoming artist Innocent Malwa. The stripe was a humorous
commentary on the vicissitudes of life.

As a monthly, the Mirror carried commentaries from guest editorials – usually

prominent members of society – who commented on issues ranging from
“Justice”249 to “the role of the Church in national development.”250But the
newspaper’s “Letters to the Editor” column did not pick up until May 1976 when
it first appeared. The previous year, the paper had only published one letter.251
The letter followed a lengthy appeal from the editor several month earlier to
readers for “Views, comments and criticism …. For inclusion in “Letters to the
Editor.”252

Apart from its highly opinionated news stories, the Mirror carried several
official columns, including guest editorials, as we have already seen. It is the
only Zambian newspaper to have published editorials in cartoon form in
addition to the editorial cartoon the paper also editorialized through pictures
under the headline “Pictorial Views”. One such pictorial editorial depicted five
pictures, two of houses for the wee-to-do and three of houses of poor people.

13Mirror, July 1974

20Mirror, August 1975

246 Mirror, March 1974

247 Mirror August 1974

248 Mirror, April/May and June/July 1978

249 Mirror, March 1972 guest editorial by Archbishop E. Milingo of Lusaka

250 Mirror, April 1972 guest editorial by Rev. M. Temble.

251 Mirror, December 1975

252 15Mirrr, November 1974

135
Press in Zambia
The Press in Zambia

All the pictures were taken in Lusaka. The captions: “Lusaka’s two residential
areas. Towards a classless society. Is the gap narrowing or widening?” were
clearly a commentary on the so-called Zambian classless society

The Mirror and the State

The Mirror’s official editorials253 became more critical of the State as the paper
grew older. From its inception in 1972 to 1983, the Mirror published 254 editorials
critical of the State.255 they included criticism of the State for prosecuting Watch
Towers,256 against corrupt leaders,257 on dictatorship,258on party militants who
did not want President Kaunda to be opposed at the 1978 elections,259 against
the proposed Press Council Bill,260 against bad leadership,261against National
Service Camp,262against increasing the number of cabinet ministers,263against
boycotting of the launching of Harry Nkumbula’s biography by top party
leaders,264and against scientific socialism.265

The Mirror disagreed against the dismissals or threats to dismiss Watch Tower
children from school for not saluting the Zambian Flag. It editorialized:

…People coming to this country from Britain in colonial times

expressed astonishment at the was in which we as school children
then – were made to parade before the British Flag each morning,
when British school children were never expected to do the same
thing in Britain! Whatever the reason was then, it is to-day considered
one means of welding the younger generation into a nation, of giving

253 The paper’s official editorial went under several names sometimes within the same issue. The names
included “Reflection,”“Comment,”“As We See,”“Thought for the Month” etc

254 Editoirals published in 1977 are not included since the researcher failed to secure back issues for that year.

255 Mirror, September 1974 editorial

256 Mirror, June 1976, National Mirror, January 1-14 1982; National Mirror, February 25-March 10 1983 editorials.

257 Mirror, September 1976 editorial.

258 Mirror, September 1978 editorial

259 National Mirror, August 29-September 11, 1980 editorial

260 National Mirror, January 1-14 1982 editorial

261 National Mirror March 27-April, 1981 editorial

262 National Mirror, October 22-November 4 1982; and August 26-September 8, 1983 editorials

263 National Mirror, March-April 8, 1982 editorial

264 32National Mirror, June 4-17, 1982 editorial

265

136
Introduction
them a sense of national pride. But it is only a means – one means
– and not a very effective one at that.

It is doubtful if any of the Churches who own the paper would

subscribe to the religious beliefs of the Watch Tower Sect or agree
with their interpretation of the Bible. But we must agree that they
have given themselves a name for being a group which makes a
considerable contribution to the material and moral formation of
our country: their honesty is well-known (why else are they chosen
to man the gates at Kitwe show?); they work hard to develop their
contribution to the kingdom of God; they don’t drink. These are much
more important factors in building up of our country, and many of
those, who contrary our constitution, persecute them for abiding by
their religious beliefs, would be more useful citizens, by following the
example of the Sect’s moral life.266

On corruption, the Mirror often called on corrupt leaders to resign.

In the older democracies, leaders accused of corruption, or whose

names have been tarnished with the paint of corruption have the
courage of resigning either from the presidency, premiership or any
other position.

In comparison Africa, has yet to see a President or top official resign

on their own, on account of having been disgraced by being linked
with conduct unbecoming of a leader…267

The Mirror took the party and Government to task for boycotting the launching
of Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, a biography written by Goodwin Mwangila and
published by Multimedia Zambia about Zambia’s father of politics.

At the age of 65, he is a frail and sick man whose utterances will
neither jeopardize the country’s peaceful co-existence, nor help
plunder whatever the nation has achieved in the way of our leaders
are currently doing…268the Mirror compiled.

In the aftermath of the coup plot in 1982 which the paper vehemently
condemned,269 the Mirror called on the frightened Zambians to discuss issues
266 Mirror, September 1974 editorial

267 Mirror, June 1976 editorial

268 National Mirror, March 26-April8, 1982 editorial

269 National Mirror, November 7-20 1980 editorial.

137
Press in Zambia
affecting the country openly and loudly. It observed:

…in the streets, people are not willing to discuss honestly, openly
and freely issues lying at the core of the affairs of the nation. Instead
people discuss the economy and the political system in whispers
Yet the Constitution of Zambia provides for basic principles to
safeguard the fundamental freedoms of the individual as enshrined
in the Human Rights Declaration. So where have we gone wrong? Is
it that Zambia is experiencing a metamorphosis of the body politic
towards a situation where these freedoms are held in sway at the
mercy of the whelms of the rulers instead of the ruled?

We would like to believe this is not the case, for we are convinced that
our political system has sufficient checks and balances and therefore
can be more tolerant, more “democratic” and more participatory than
it really is at the moment…270
The Mirror true to its critical stance, chided President Kaunda after he revealed
at the Press conference that some former leaders who included former
members of the cabinet and the civil service, were planning to topple his
Government. One of the “gang of five” the President named was Elias Chipimo,
a former diplomat, then chairman of the Standard Bank.271

In a strongly worded editorial, the Mirror linked the “gang of five” to the
sacrificial lambs offered by Jews in pre-Christian times. It went on:

…A fortnight ago, we may have witnessed another lamb offering in

the “KK versus gang of Five” affair. We are truly concerned. The five
who stand accused are not street hooligans. They are committed
Christians though some of them may be frighteningly frank

their major transgression,most of them,was making public statements.

But isn’t truth on of the cardinal points of the Christian faith? Is it not
our Lord Jesus Christ who said truth shall make you free?

We do not, therefore, share the view that in them we have the makings
of Liberia’s Master Sergeant Doe. Coup plotters work in the dark. They
may clap and cheer loudest outwardly show signs of loving their
master till they turn the tables. They are wolves in the sheep’s skin.

We feel that these lamb offerings have got to come to an end. Not

270 National Mirror, December 17-30, 1982 editorial.

271 National Mirror, April 25-May 8, 1980 p.1 lead story headlined “Kaunda Versus Chipimo.”

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Introduction
only are they isolating a large group of people from the mainstream
of the body politic but they are also dangerous….272

The editorial and the reproduction of an offering speech by Chipimo, earned

the newspaper a reproach from Party Secretary General Mainza Chona in a
form of a lengthy letter which was published under the heading: “Chona
attacks Mirror, Chipimo.”

The newspaper said in reply to Chona’s letter that it firmly believed it had a
duty to reproduce the main of Chipimo’s speech to give readers an opportunity
for objective assessment in the aftermath of the dramatic pronouncements
and events that had since taken place. It left it to the enlightened audience
to ponder on the accusations and ominous insinuations against the paper. It
concluded:

We perfectly understand the evil forces behind the now two year
old campaign to banish us into oblivion. President Kaunda has so far
resisted to this but whatever happens history will absolve us.273

The “campaign to burnish” which the Mirror was referring to started in 1978
when the newspaper revealed intentions by Robert Chiluwe,274 and Harry
Nkumbula275 to challenge President Kaunda by contesting presidential
elections. Many party militants branded the newspaper anti-party. But the
adamant Mirror stood steadfast, in turn accusing party militants who wanted
President Kaunda to return unopposed as being shortsighted by failing to
appreciate the need to maintain credibility of the one-party participatory
democracy. The newspaper maintained that the system must be seen to
operate democratically. This principle could only be vindicated by the time-
tested mechanism of free elections.276 the paper cautioned the Party not to
threaten people to vote in a certain way under the guise of “teaching people
how to vote.”277 The Mirror strongly opposed the Government’s proposed Press
Council Bill through which the Party attempted to make the press subservient
to it.278 the newspaper dubbed the proposed Bill a “package of threats.” Its
editorial read:

272 National Mirror, May 8-22, 1980 editorial

273 Mirror, August 1978, lead story on page 1 headed “Nkumbula stands”

274 National Mirror, May 23-june 5, 1980, “where we stand” p.11.

275 Mirror, July 1978, lead story on page 1 headed “KK Challenged”

276 Mirror, August 1978 editorial and Mirror, September 1978, editorial

277 National Mirror, October 21- November 3, editorial.

278 See Appendix

139
Press in Zambia

Comments have been invited from certain newspaper and magazine

publishing houses on a draft document called the Press Council of
Zambia Bill to be tabled before Parliament shortly.

When it becomes law, journalists, will be expected to shower praise

on the leadership and sing glory songs for its policies. The journalists
will have to avoid religious, tribal or any “biased influences” when
reporting. For the subservient and uncritical media we already have,
this is really the last straw that will break the camel’s back

Sitting in judgement on the Press Council will be ‘strangers’ tot the

journalism profession in this country. Only four appointees will be
representing the interests of journalists

Surprisingly, this Press ‘bundle’ has been prepared by people outside

the profession when it should have been vice-versa

The Press Bill is a package of threats and when it becomes law

journalists will have to decide whether to stay put in Zambia as
journalists, or change their profession or pack up and flee elsewhere.
Some newspapers like this one which reflects the views of the
Church (religious bias) will cease to operate. Why? In a Christian and
democratic country like Zambia?

Already, there is a national crisis of unemployment in this country. But

Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka is churning out reporters who cannot
find employment immediately because newspaper houses are few.
The University of Zambia will soon start training journalists who, too,
will not be finding employment immediately.

But a Press Bill is already drafted which, when it is law, will empower the
Party-sponsored council to be banning magazines, newspapers and
dismissing journalists thought to be overstepping the administrative
set-ups. The end result is that a good number of journalists will swell
up the ranks of the unemployed. Is this what the authorities want to
see in this country?

Currently, those who have enriched themselves without much sweat

are mostly those who are supposed to be servants of the people. If
the journalists will not be allowed to expose this and the many other
vices, we are forced to ask whether those in authority want corruption

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Introduction
and all social evils to continue in this country…

Indeed, when a few people arbitrarily take it upon themselves to

formulate uncompromising and contradictory rules for everyone in
society they make a mockery of the concept of participatory democracy.
When dissenting views are stifled, then a nation deprives itself of the
beams which help in the process of social transformation.

The motive is clear. If it is not oligarchy in the offing, the Press Council
Bill as we have seen it should be given to a team of independent
journalists for “heavy subbing” before it goes to Parliament.279

The Mirror itself did a lot of “heavy subbing” of the Bill in a centre spread
article.280 perhaps it was due to this “heavy subbing” the editorial that the
Government did not present the Bill to Parliament up to the time of writing
this chapter in March 1984.

The newspaper was a constant critic of bad and corrupt leadership.281 It took
the Government to task for not having solved the food problem –sixteen years
after independence. it put the blame for this on “people in the leadership who
think and behave as if they are first-class citizen whilst the so-called masses
must come to them on their knees to buy life.”282 It attacked the appointing
authorities for continuing to appoint corrupt leaders saying:

It is disheartening to note that despite the glaring inadequacies by

certain leaders in the public offices they still continue to run the show,
at the expense of the masses.283

48Mirror, June 1976; Mirror 1978 editorial; National Mirror, Oct. 23 – Nov. 6,
1980; National Mirror, Feb. 27 – March 1981; and National Mirror, Oct. 23 – Nov
5, 1981 editorials; and National Mirror, Jan 1-14, 1982.

The newspaper took the state to task against the proposed introduction of
scientific socialism. It maintained that scientific socialism was incompatible
with the Christian doctrine. Zambia was a Christian country and therefore did

279 National Mirror, August 29-September 11, 1980 editorial.

280 Ibid. Pages 6-7

281 National Mirror, Oct.23-Nov. 6, 1980 editorial.

282 50 National Mirror, Jan 1-14, 1982 editorial

283 National Mirror, June 4- June 17, 1982 editorial

141
Press in Zambia
not need scientific socialism.284
The Mirror was outspoken against the state not only in its editorials but also
in it’s reporting. As indicated earlier in this chapter, the newspaper’s news
reporting style was marked by numerous opinions intermingled with hard
news . it reported interpretatively.

The newspaper often published front page lead stories unfavourable to the
State. These included the following thirteen lead stories: April 1976 “Rulers
Need Guidance,” July 1978 “KK Challenge,” August 1979 “Nkumbula Stands,”
March 1979 “Dig up body of ZNS girl,” April 1979 “Top men wipe out Game,”
May 1979 “Zambian Elections ‘a shame’ Harry,” April 25-May8, 1980 “Kaunda
vs. Chipimo,” August 15-August 28 1980 “The Big Press Muzzle,” December 19
– January 1, 1981 “Chipimo Blasts Arbitrary Arrests,” March 26-April 2, 1982
“Socialism and Religion are Conflicting Religions: Scientific Socialism Rejected.”
May 20 – June 2, 1983 “The ZESCO Saga: Political interference Ruins Company.”
And September 9-22, 1983 “Politicians confusing the Church.”

The Mirror’s critical stance against the State was further emphasized by readers
in the “Letters to the Editor” column. One such letter came from L.K Daka of
Ndola who joined the Mirror in criticizing the Government over the proposed
Press Council Bill. The letter writer declared:

The Bill must be publicly debated, drastically amended, or simply

be treated as bad ideas written on good paper by people who are
ideologically comfortable. I hold that the independence and freedom
of the Press should be upheld in a humanist State.52

Another letter writer, J. C. Chifunda of Lusaka asked President Kaunda to free

the four detained labour leaders questioning the legality of the detentions285
Yet another one, Texon D Lulu of Lusaka, called on UNIP not to force people to
join it.286

The Mirror had a unique case of what could be called collective editorials. These
were published in the regular column “Our Comrades Says” which appeared
for the first time in March 1978. The column, which was still being published
in 1983, consisted of contributions from members of the public which were
edited so well that they appeared as if they were written by one person. The
contributions were typified by a caricature of a pot-belled, pip-smoking man.

284 National Mirror, November 7-20, 1980 p.11

285 National Mirror, Oct 23-Nov 5 1981 p.11

286 Nationa Mirror, Dec 4 Dec 17, 1981 p.11

142
Introduction
The newspaper’s issue of August 13-26, 1982 carried what seemed to be a
normal “Our Comrade Says” column but which left the paper’s proprietors
scared stiff. The column run in part:
Our comrade feels that the important and popular national phrase
“the Party and Its Government” should be abbreviated to PIG, so
that our national leaders can now simply be saying “the PIG has
decided…” or “We in the PIG are committed to…” this will help our
beloved leaders to save time and a lot of their breath.

But when this abbreviation is recorded in our Party literature

saboteurs of semantics must be warned against referring to Freedom
House, the Party Headquarters, as the “PIGGERY” Anybody doing so
should not be spared the wrath of the “PIG”287

As soon as the article was noticed the proprietors withdrew the paper from
vendors. The newspaper also run a lengthy apology to the party and its
Government in the next edition. The retraction headed: “Apology to the Party
and its Government” read:

We refer to the second part of “Our Comrade Says” column which

appeared on page three of our last issue of the National Mirror
(August 13-26, 1982)

We would like to apologies most sincerely and unreservedly for

making and publishing the unguarded statements which appeared
on the said page.

Although “Our Comrade Says” is basically a regular column intended

to contain humorous remarks, we now, though belatedly, fully realize
that the text in the column was and is in bad taste. The remarks should
not have been made nor published at all. We therefore wish to retract
the statements forthwith.

In our committed efforts to redress the situation, in addition to

our unqualified apology in the latest issue all unsold copies of the
National Mirror were withdrawn from newspaper vendors.

We sincerely apologies for any embarrassment caused to the Party

and it’s Government.

We pledge to continue our support for the ideals which the Party

287 National Mirror, August 13-26, 1982 p.3

143
Press in Zambia
and it’s Government stand for in the development of Zambia. –
EDITOR.288

56National Mirror, August 27-September 9, 1982, p.3

The Press in Zambia

The apology had come. The last thing the owners of the paper wanted was to
open up fresh wounds in the Mirror’s soured relations with the State which it
had earned through its critical stance. The highlight of the soured relations had
come barely a year earlier, in January 1981, when President Kaunda spitefully
called the newspaper “the little Mirror.”

The President had scolded Church leaders for using the newspaper as a
platform for attacking the party and it’s Government. He told the harshed
Church leaders in Lusaka’ Mulungushi Hall that it was shameful that they were
using the Mirror to further their selfish ends.

The scolding followed a face-to-face interview with Chipimo carried in the

December 1980 issue of the newspaper. Chipimo was interviewed by the
National Mirror after his release from detention in connection with the 1980
coup plot to topple the Government

President Kaunda told Chipimo: “why are you Chipimo using the little Mirror
to say things against us? The Mirror will not save you, it is just a small Church
paper.”289

Party Secretary General Mainza Chona also reproached the Mirror for having
published the interview. He warned the newspaper to be cautious in its
coverage of national issues. But Multimedia Zambia Chairman Francis Nkhoma
replying on behalf of the newspaper said Zambia would be a very unhealthy
society if the party ever tried to ban the intelligent discussions of national
issues. That would be the end of freedom of speech and other related freedoms
in the land. It would be the end of participatory democracy in Zambia and the
establishment of dictatorship. He said as a Christian paper, the Mirror had a
duty to speak out candidly but prudently on political, economic and social

288
289 National Mirror, January 19-29, 1981 p.1

144
Introduction
issues which were of grave concern to the welfare of the country.290

The obviously unrepentant ‘little’ Mirror went ahead in its next issue to declare
that there were few people who could seriously be labelled enemies of the
State. Many were helpless victims of political intrigues. The newspaper begged
President Kaunda to give a fair chance to come back from “their forced limbo,”
Zambians who had “been kicked out of the political system” and those “who
were being denied employment, a basic human right, for their articulate
opinions on this country’s affairs.” The paper further asked the President to
show mercy and compassion to those detained people who were ready to turn
over a new leaf and contribute once again to the country’s development.291

As indicated earlier, the Mirror concentrated its onslaught on local politics. It

rarely commented on international politics when it did it never minced its words.
One such occasion was when the paper attacked the Kenyan Government for
sacking editor-in-chief of the Standard newspaper, George Githii, because of
an editorial he wrote criticizing his Government for detaining people without
trail. The Mirror even reprinted Githii’s editorial under the headline “Githii’s
Editorial that Cost His Job.”292

The Newspaper took the occasion of President Jaafer Nimiery of Sudan killing
of 98 people who plotted against him as a chance for a general attack on African
leaders who did not want to step down from power but had to be removed
by a soldier’s bullet. The paper said what made it difficult for African and Third
World leaders to retire from office was the real fear of how their lives would
be safeguarded from friends, sympathizers and relatives of dissidents, who,
when they do not toe the party or Government line, they torture, prosecute,
humiliate and treat worse than common criminals. Because of this fear, most
African leaders were life presidents by law, or if they were not so, they were in
fact so. The editorial concluded:

We are not cardinals or patriarchs of military coup detats. We detest

them because where they have occurred, they have been more
dictatorial than the civilian rule, they have no respect for human
lives even lives of their own citizens ….. They are an unhappy but
sometimes inevitable alternative.293

The Mirror and the Church

290 National Mirror, February 13-26,1981 p.1 lead story headed “Chipimo Row Rages On”

291 National Mirror, March 13-26, 1981 editorial

292 National Mirror, July 30 – August, 1982 editorial

293 Mirror, September 1976

145
Press in Zambia

While the Mirror was very outspoken against the State, it almost never spoke
out against the Church – its proprietor. From 1972 when it started publication to
1983, only two editorial were critical of two events in the Church. One criticized
the split in the African Methodist Episcopal Church over new appointments.
The newspaper said it was sad that the Church as the light of Zambia in
particular must indulge in power struggles of serving God with humility.294
The other editorial implicitly criticized Lusaka Catholic Archbishop Milingo’s
practice of faith healing by supporting his recall by the Pope to Rome.295 until
this editorial, the newspaper had carefully avoided commenting on the long-
drawn Milingo controversy.

The newspaper, during the same period, only published three page one lead
stories which could be described as unfavourable to the Church. One of the
was on Milingo which was announced with the banner headline “Archbishop
Milingo in the Wilderness!” The story’s introduction read:

The unthinkable although not quite unexpected has happened.

Archbishop Milingo has bee removed from his Archdiocese for an
indefinite period and perhaps for good.296

The second lead was on controversial Anglican priest Ronald Carver headed
“Carver Blasts Clergy Again.” In the story, Rev. Carver who was dismissed as
general secretary of the Anglican Council in Zambia, was reported to have
insisted that black priests in Zambia required better education.297 The third
lead was again on Archbishop Milingo lifted from an East African newspaper
in which he was reported to have said that he was deserted by his fellow
bishops in Zambia.298

The obvious conclusion is that the Church did not want its own newspaper
to was its dirty linen in public.299 The Mirror’s ecumenical situation, no doubt
contributed to its shying away from being hard on the Church because there
was always the question of “which Church?” An unfavourable editorial or lead

294 National Mirror, May 8-21 1981 editorial

295 National Mirror, October 8-21, 1982. an entry in the Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1982 on page
says the newspaper “refrained from publishing letters and articles which might seem an attack on the Roman
Catholic Church.”

296 Natinal Mirror, April 23-May 6 1982

297 National Mirror, March 25-April 7 1983

298 National Mirror, December 30, 1983-Jan. 12 1984

299 This conclusion is supported by some of the personnel close to the newspaper who include one-time edi-
tor-in-chief Mbuyu Nalumango

146
Introduction
story on one Church would be regarded as unfair on the particular Church
which would feel it was being victimized at the expense of other Churches in
the ecumenical organisation. The Mirror seems to have preferred unity of the
constituent Churches of Multimedia to cleaning its own house.

Not only had the Mirror to be careful not to expose the Church in its news
and editorial column, it had to watch its advertising columns too. Once the
newspaper run a display advertisement of two astrologers and spiritual
healers. The advertisements carried head-and-shoulders pictures of the two
people with the following words:

Meet the most accurate amusing and amazing spiritual healers

tarot spiritual cards fortune tellers, dream interpreters, palmist and
astronumerologers

Dr. Jiheje and Agrafa will instantly solve your incurable conditions
such as: asthma, hypertension, fits, madness, lumbago, earpus, love,
high blood pressure, chronic headaches, skin disease, horoscope.

and life destiny forecasts, employment, impotence, lucky charms,

marriage, menstrual troubles, horse racing, gambling, exam, lucky
plants, barrenness, cattle disease, boxing, football and events
predictions etc.

First and the best …always300

It was obvious that Church leaders would protest against such an advertisement
which stood for principles contrary to what Christianity stands for.301 they did.
The advertisement was never published again.302

Other eye-raising advertisement in the Mirror were those of a girl exposing

her burst and thigh. The quarter page advertisement bordered on the incident
for a Christian newspaper.303

Indeed the Mirror’s special position as a Christian newspaper coupled with

its critical role against the State made its advertising drive difficult. Because
Zambia’s economy was largely controlled by the State, the para-satal
companies increasingly threatened to cut off advertising support from the
300 Natinal Mirror, July, p.4 March 28-April 11, 1979 p.8

301National Mirror, September 12-25, 1980, p.5

302 For instance Christians do not believe in predestination which astrologer believe in.

303 Mbuyu Nalumango confirmed the protests.

147
Press in Zambia
outspoken newspaper. The Mirror complained:

…We are further saddened when we learn that for giving the people
a forum, we are made subject of economic sanctions of sorts. Para-
statal institutions who form more than 75 percent of the business
sector – we reliably understand – being pressed into reviewing their
relationship with us “or else.” We hope and pray to the Almighty that
it is not true that the so-called people’s companies are being used to
stifle the voice of the very shareholder they claim to serve.304

By the end of 1983, the ‘little’ Mirror had established itself as a popular and
respected national newspaper. Its popularity was no doubt, due to its fearless
criticism of the State on issues on which the official press shuddered to speak
out. The newspaper was, indeed proud of its critical stance against the State
as could be sThe editorials during the past years have been bold. We have
commented on touchy subjects of employment, independence celebrations
when copper prices are dropping, and the screening of candidates for national
elections in a democratic country.305

The newspaper saw itself as the voice of the oppressed and fighter against
all forms of injustices and social evils.306 The people supported the Mirror by
buying the newspaper even more than ever before and demanding that it
be published more often. The Mirror responded by turning the monthly
publication into a fortnightly one in January 1980.307

TABLE 10
SHOWING CIRCULATION FIGURES OF THE NATIONAL MIRROR
YEAR CIRCULATION
1972 50,000
1973 25,000
1974 28,000
1975 15,000
1976 25,000
1977 10,000
1978 -
1980 -
1981 17,000
1982 17,000
1983 10,000
304 National Mirror, February 29-March 13, 1980 editorial

305 Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1975, p.3

306 Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1981, p.13

307 Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1980, p.6

148
Introduction

Source: Multimedia Zambia annual reports Figures for 1978 and 1979 were
not available

If it had not been for the ever escalating newsprint prices, the Mirror’s circulation
should have been much higher in 1983 than the 10,000 shown in Table 10.
for instance, newsprint prices increased by 100 percent in 1974, forcing the
management to cut the newspaper’s circulation from 28,000 in 1974 to 15,000
in 1975.308 so did printing costs which by 1980 stood at K63,648.50 for 17,000
copies of the 12 paged tabloid.309

The fluctuating circulation figures shown in Table 10 are, therefore, a reflection

of the newspapers newsprint shortage problems and not of the fact that the
newspaper was in a bad shape. For instance, the newspaper’s advertising
revenue doubled to K88,289 in 1982 from K42,928.04 in 1981. The Mirror was
often assisted with newsprint donations from Christian organizations in West
Germany and Norway.

The Mirror’ outspokenness against the State vindicated press freedom in

Zambia at the time when it was in danger of being whittled away in the state-
owned and/or controlled press.

In the next chapter, we look at how the state-owned and/or controlled press
struggled to maintain its freedom.

78Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1977, p7; and Multimedia Zambia
Annual Report for 1982, p.4

308 Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1974,p.2

309 Multimedia Zambia Annual Report for 1980, p.6

149
Press in Zambia
STATE PRESS STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM:
1975-1983
Meaning of Press Freedom

The nine years between 1975 and 1983 were marked by unprecedented
struggle by the two national dailies, the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily
Mail for press freedom. Inherent in this struggle was the disagreement about
the meaning of press freedom.

For the newspaperman, this freedom was derived from the Constitutional
right of every individual to spread and receive ideas.310 The press was like
the conveyor belt through which news and ideas were transmitted from the
ruled to the rulers and vice versa. But it was a responsible and knowledgeable
transmission-belt which chose what news or ideas to transmit. They were free
to choose what to inform the people

For the politician, the party had a right to stop the press from publishing news
and ideas which were objectionable to it, particularly those which painted the
party in unfavourable light. The press was to foster national unity in all that
it published. Any article that could possibly cause disunity in the nation was
anathema to the party. The politician also objected to newspapers publishing
material which he regarded as corrupting morals of Zambians. He, for instance
protested against publication of pictures of nude or near nude women.

These two diametrically opposed views resulted in friction between the press
and the party. Situation arose in which some party officials thought they were
within their rights to literally order reporters not to take down notes during
public meetings, when they thought what they were saying was “not for public
consumption.”

A classic example was in 1981 when Party Secretary General Humprey

Mulemba, insisting that he was the one to choose what parts of his speech
should be published, caused what was called the Timesgate fracas in Kitwe.
He sent his aids to get a copy of a Times of Zambia story from the newspaper’s
Kitwe offices. The aids pulled chief reporter Arnold Kapelembi out of bed and
made him climb a wall into the telex room to get the story. They then took

310 The Constitution of Zambia preamble guarantees “freedom of expression and association.”

150
Introduction
Kapelembi and the story to the Secretary General, who after satisfying himself
that there was nothing objectionable in it told Kapelembi to go.311

The Times took great exception to the action. It editorialized:

If Zambia is to remain a free society then it must have a free Press in

word and in deed.
Sourly, Mr. Mulemba’s Copperbelt tour has ended in a despicable
public attack on this newspaper.
We take the greatest exception to the harassment of our reporters
and the burglary of our Kitwe offices during the visit by the Secretary
General of the Party
The Times of Zambia has been denounced, its reporters have been
ordered to stand and answer questions at public meetings addressed
by the Party chief and their privacy has been invaded by forcing them
out of bed in the middle of the night
That action is not only base, but it is also a naked physical attempt to
unwarranted censorship at its highest.
Officials in Mr. Mulemba’s encounter have even threatened to break
into our Kabelenga Avenue premises in Ndola to order the presses to
stop printing this newspaper.
These are Gestapo methods which until now have been unheard of
in the history of the Press in Zambia. We are, to say the least, shocked
at the prospect.
However. Since Mr. Mulemba has chosen to deride and cast aspersions
on us in the public it is only fair that we use a similar medium to
answer back and give him home-truths.
If Mr. Mulemba has not been“happy”about our coverage – in headlines,
picture reports and editorials – of his trip, he certainly knows that it is
the editor-in-chief who is responsible for every word and letter that
appear in the Times of Zambia and Sunday Times of Zambia.
It is a travesty of justice for him to take to task simple reporters
covering his activities in isolated places like Chililabombwe, Chingola,
Kalulushi or anywhere else.
What does Mr. Mulemba expect of reporter being called out of a mass
rally by a leader of the Party Secretary-General’s weight? Should the
reporter throw his pen and notebook down and take issue with the
Party chief?

311 Times of Zambia, 17 march 1981 p.1

151
Press in Zambia

That is wrong. The Editor-in-chief is the one qualified to speak on

behalf of Times Newspapers and that is as it should be. If Mr. Mulemba
had a point of disagreement over our selection of news he could easily
have discussed that with the Editor or his deputy in nearby Ndola.

By going to the extent of demanding to read through copy –

reporter’s written work – before publication is tantamount to gross
Press censorship.

It is only the Editor who can order the publication or withdrawal of a

story otherwise anyone would give instructions to newspaper staff.
That would lead to the manipulation of the Press by self-seekers.

At least we haven’t come to that stage yet in Zambia….312

Another remarkable instance was in November 1981 when Lusaka urban

party youth chairman William Banda ordered party militants to confiscate
the notebook in which Times reporter Josiyas Mbuzi was taking down notes
during a meeting at Zambia Engineering and Construction Company (ZESCO)
offices. Banda had asked Mbuzi to write “about the complaints of anti-party
activities.” He later demanded to know what Mbuzi had written and when the
reporter refused, he commanded party militants: “I want that notebook.” The
militants obliged by forcefully getting the notebook from Mbuzi.313

Member of Central Committee in charge of the press, Bob Litana, saw the role
of the press as that of protecting the image of the party. He said through bad
reporting on internal matters, it was easy for the enemy to infiltrate the country,
create chaos and make people lose faith in the leadership. Litana accused the
press for giving more coverage to people who attacked Government policy.
He ordered:

This attitude must stop because there is no balancing in the reporting.

The Press is free to write what newsworthy but more coverage should
be given to people who defend government policy.314
Earlier in 1978, information, Broadcasting and Tourism Minister Unia Mwila
had told newsmen to create a favourable image of the country both inside
and outside without exaggerating certain issues. He said although there was a
lot to be said about Zambia on the positive side, the mass media had
312 Times of Zambia, 17 March 1981 editorial.

313 4Times of Zambia, 4 November, 1981, p.5

314 Zambia Daily Mail, 18 May 1982, p.1

152
Introduction
Figure

153
Press in Zambia
tended to protect mostly the negative side of life in Zambia by giving so much
prominence to reports on sex scandals and crime.315

The proposed Press Council bill in 1980 already referred to in chapter VII, was
a deliberate attempt by the State to muzzle the press. Fortunately, the same
State saw reason and did not rush the Bill into Parliament. Had the Bill been
enacted into law, the press in Zambia would have definitely been suffocated
by political power.

However, the unexpected attempt to enact the Press Council Bill was
overshadowed by successive ministers of information who acknowledged
that freedom of the press was a key pillar of Zambian democracy. They knew
that by tempering with the freedom of the press to publish as it saw fit, they
would rock the very foundation of the country’s participatory democracy - a
democracy founded on the people’s right to have a say in running the affairs
of their country. They publicly admitted that this demanded on the mass
exchange of ideas and information which was made possible through the
press.316

Officially, therefore, the Government was very sensitive to suggestions

that there was no freedom of the press in Zambia. in 1981, Information and
Broadcasting Services Minister of State John Banda was reproached for telling
a journalism course graduation ceremony that a free press did not exist
anywhere in the world (including Zambia) but was an illusion of journalist.
Banda is quoted to have told the graduating journalists:

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you in the name of a free press. You
may end up without a job. In short, there is no such thing as free press,
it is an illusion, a creation of journalists.317

But the Ministry issued a statement disassociating the Government form

Banda’s“personal”[Link] statement said press freedom existed in Zambia.318
during the nine years under review, therefore, the State officially reaffirmed the
freedom of the Zambia press. But in some cases the policy was not matched by
deeds. In practice some officials of the State tended to suppress that freedom.
It was during the same period that the State effectively took over the country’s
315 Zambia Daily Mail, 22nd July 1978, p.1

316 Zambia Daily Mail, 23 February 1977, p.1 “Our Press is not Biased – Mwila,”
12 September 1980 p.1 “Press wont be Muzzled – Tambatamba,” 25 March 1981 p.1 “We Wont Muzzle the
Press,” 9 March 1983 p.1 “Press is Free-Minister,” 15 November 1983 p.1 “Press Freedom to Continue, says
Chibanda.”

317 Times of Zambia, 26 September 1981,

318 Times of Zambia, 2 October 1981, p.1

154
Introduction
coldest and most influential newspaper – the Times of Zambia.

As suggested in the introduction to this book, the State takeover of the Times of
Zambia was not necessarily incompatible with press freedom. A State-owned
newspaper can still have the freedom to choose what news and opinions to
publish and not allow itself to be dictated to by the authorities who own it. But
this is a fight which is earned rather than bequeathed. The natural tendency
of any State, Zambian included, is to try and control the contents of state-
owned newspapers. The newspapers have to put up a fight to resist that
control. That fight did not take place in Zambia particularly between the newly
acquired Times of Zambia and the State. It was less noticeable with regard
to the Zambia Daily Mail which, by the end of 1983, the State had owned for
18years.

Times of Zambia: 1975-1983

The takeover of the Times of Zambia10 by UNIP (the Party) which president
Kaunda had announced in June 1975, did not become effective until seven
years later in October 1982 when the Party bought the Lonrho-owned
enterprise. But the newspaper was a de facto Party paper before it even
became a property of Zambia National Holdings – UNIP’s conglomerate.

The Party hired and fired senior staff. For instance deputy editor-in-chief
William Saidi was dismissed by President Kaunda in November 1975 because
his performance as a journalist continued to be “inconsistent with the
philosophy and spirit of the paper which must be the mouth-piece of the
Party …”319 But Saidi was reinstated by the Party in January 1977, presumably
repentant. The action which coincided with that of the appointment of John
Musukuma as editor-in-chief and the sacking of four reporters Tim Chigodo,
Chao Daka, Saviour Chafungwa and Samu Zulu sparked off a controversy in
Parliament which we will discuss later.320 Like Saidi, the four reporters were
later reinstated. But Daka and Chigodo refused to go back to their posts.

Protest
During this period, therefore, the Times of Zambia arrogantly protested against
any State functionary who wanted to dictate to it what to publish or not
publish. Apprehensive of its new status as a Party paper, the once outspoken
Times knew that its credibility was at stake if it allowed officialdom to creep
into its news informing and opinion functions. The newspaper did not believe
its new role was to sing praises of the Party and Government day in and day

319 Times of Zambia, 5 November 1975 p.1

320 Times of Zambia,27 January 1977 p.1

155
Press in Zambia
out.321it did not believe Zambia’s one-party state status was an excuse for the
State to silence criticism.322The newspaper maintained that whatever political
system people may choose, they should still be able to communicate their
authentic thoughts, feelings and actions to rest of mankind the newspaper

10All general references to the Times of Zambia include the Sunday Times of
Zambia paper, therefore, went ahead and criticized the administration both
in its news as well as opinions. The criticism was, generally, well taken by the
State, although some individual officers were riled by it.

Times Asserts Press Freedom

Between August 1975 to April 1982 a series of bitter exchanges between

the Times and the State took place, culminating in the State finally trying to
subdue the press once and for all in the proposed Press Council Bill. But by
1983, the repressive Bill was still on the drawing board, as we will see.

The Times based its premises in its fight for the freedom of the press on the
fact that Zambians resented propaganda and were always very suspicious
about whether or not a particular news report had been “specifically cooked
for them” by somebody.

It is this ability to stand erect on their two feet and look facts in the
face that has so far marked Zambians off from many people around.
The Zambian Press has played no mean role in building up and for
steering this national image of the Republic.

The Times said. It noted that the situation was now changing. There was a
sudden interest, especially from individuals, in what their press was doing.
Some of the pressures arising from this were quite negative and retrospective.
Others could only be described as misguided.

If Zambian journalism is to survive and continue to play its role in line

with the whole people, these excesses and temptations by people
outside the profession has (sic) to be checked.

Certainly the disastrous pretences that some people have a better

grasp of the profession than those practicing it everyday have to be
curbed firmly.323
321 Times of Zambia, 6 March 1977 editorial

322 Times of Zambia, 3 February editorial.

323 Times of Zambia, 14 August 1975 editorial

156
Introduction
The newspaper said whatever political system any and every people may
choose, the people should still be able to communicate their authentic
thoughts, feelings and actions to the rest of mankind. It followed that the
media could not be confined to merely telling what the Government was
saying or wanted to say.324

The Times said there were too many leaders in the country who believed that
the Party and Government press should sing the praises of their masters day
in and out. A sycophantic press was as useful as a non-press.

The press was like a conveyor-belt of all information from the Party to the
people and from the people to the Party. It should criticize or praise where
criticism or praise was due.325
By and large the Times did just that. It did not want its newly acquired close
relationship with the Party to silence its usual critical role to which the public
had been conditioned.326

The period from 1975 to 1983, therefore, was marked by a series of bitter
exchanges between the Times and the State as the former tried to assert its
freedom to criticize the administration even though it was controlled and later
owned by it. The criticisms came in the form of editorial and expose page one
lead newsstories.

Editorials Critical of the State

As Table 11 shows, during the period from 1975 to 1983, the Times of Zambia
published a total of 73 editorials327 critical of the Party and/or Government as a
whole or some aspects of the two institutions. The last six months of 1975 saw
six such editorials. But their number somewhat decreased in 1976 and 1977
when seven and three were published respectively. They rose to 10 in 1978
and 16 in 1979, reaching their peak of 17 in 1980. In 1981, the newspaper’s
critical stance dropped to five editorials. There were none in 1982 but nine
were published in 1983.

The low number and lack of editorials critical of the State in 1977 and 1982
respectively may be attributed to the fact that these two years preceded

324 Times of Zambia, 15 November 1976 editorial

325 7Times of Zambia, 3 September 1980, p.5

326 Milimo Punabantu as President Kaunda’s Special Assistant for the Press once told the Lusaka Press Club
that the Press in developing countries was too close to the system of political power that sometimes it could
get suffocated – Times of Zambia, 16 February 1980, p.5

327 This figure includes editorials in the Sunday Times of Zambia

157
Press in Zambia
general and presidential election years, periods in which the newspaper
concentrated on mobilizing people for the polls rather than picking on the
administration.

In 1975, the Times criticized the Party’s Members of the Central Committee
for doing manual work only once a year during Humanism Week. It suggested
that at least once a week they should take a morning off from office work to
do outdoor manual labour as a matter of routine.328

The newspaper also criticized the Party for spending “lavishly” for the 10th
independence anniversary celebrations while the country was facing an
economic crisis. It said the Party had squandered K4 million for the prestigious
event.329
The Times disapproved of President Kaunda’s announcement in 1975 that
compulsory saving should be introduced in order to save for the future. The
paper editorialized:

TABLE 11

TIMES OF ZAMBIA EDITORIALS CRITICAL OF THE STATE JUNE 1975 –

DECEMBER 1983

NUMBER OF EDITORIALS
YEAR Jan-June July-Dec TOTAL
1975 -5 6 6
1976 1 2 7
1977 2 2 3
1979 6 8 10
1980 8 10 16
1981 2 9 17
1982 0 3 5
1983 4 0 0
5 9
TOTAL 28 45 73

The idea that the “fat” of the Mwanakatwe salary and wage benefits should be
skimmed off by compulsory savings is on the face of it attractive but, like the
last budget, can hardly solve the problem…
The attempt by the State to squeeze savings out of the pockets of workers

328 Times of Zambia, 28 October 1975 editorial

329 Times of Zambia, 23 September 1975 editorial.

The Press in Zambia

158
Introduction
after giving away the money is certain to cause personal, labour and political
discontent.

A better plan to make the sacrifices is to postpone paying the awards and
save the money en bloc for five years while the K56 million is put into a
special scheme to introduce the mining and public service communities into
production on the land.330

The Times took the State to task for suggesting that the old Kamwala
huts should be repaired. The newspaper did not want them repaired but
demolished.331 The Government listened. Three days later Housing and Local
Government Minister Peter Matoka announced that the slams would go.332

In 1976, the Times attacked Minister of Labour and Social Services Dingiswayo
Banda for announcing that Government would close down orphanages and
old people’s homes because they were not in conformity with the African way
of life.333

The following year, the newspaper had some hard words for the “Judas
Iscariots” in the Party’s Central Committee. While criticizing people who were
agitating for the abolition of the Central Committee, the Paper admitted:

The Central Committee is not made up of saints….

Naturally there are members, not only of the Central Committee but
of other vital Party organs whose dedication and loyalty qualified
them for the sobriquet of “Judas Iscariot” recently referred to by the
President.

Judas is reported to have committed suicide in the end. We may not

have such luck. Our Iscariots are totally without remorse.334

When meat shortage eased in 1978, the Times took the Government to task
for banning meat imports. It said the move was premature. It called on the
administration to increase beef producer so as to boost the home industry.335

330 Times of Zambia, 10 September 1975 editorials.

331 Times of Zambia, 5 September 1975 editorial

332 Times of Zambia, 8 August 1975 editorial

333 Times of Zambia, 15 May 1976 editoria

334 Sunday Times of Zambia, 30 October 1977 editorial

335 Times of Zambia, 17 April 1978 editorial

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Press in Zambia
During the 1978 election campaign, the newspaper attacked some Party
members for using force and violence in the voters registration campaigns.
It called for the banning of door-to-door campaigns which it said invariably
degenerated into slanging matches the Party cadres and householders.336
The Times disapproved of top Party and Government officials getting

Their children, who had failed Grade 7, places in Form 1.337 It scotched the “rich
fat cats” in the Party.338
In the same election year, the paper tore to threads what it called the Party and
Government’s hit-and-miss economic policies.

Trade between Zambia and racist South Africa has to be understood

in its proper context. If Zambia could help it, there would be little or
no such trade at all….

What has changed and changed dramatically is the economy of

Zambia. it is a fact that it the price of copper had been high and if our
economy had been better managed, we would not be trading with
racists today….

Some of the mistakes we have made in setting up of the parastatals

would be laughable it they were not so tragic…..

As long as this hit-and-miss kind of planning continues, the South

Africans will be very happy with us, in spite of apartheid and our
condemnation of it.339

The beginning of 1979 saw the Times chide the Party and Government for
overspending340 and for hurshing up top leaders’ cases

…If there is truly one law for ordinary people and another for “top
people,” then there is something absolutely rotten with the system. It
is to be fervently hoped that the people are not about to be shocked
out of their faith in the system.341

336 Times of Zambia, 20 April 1978 editorial

337 Times of Zambia, 3 December 1978 editorial

338 Times of Zambia, 10 December 1978 editorial

339 Times of Zambia, 22 December 1978 editorial

340 Time of Zambia, 19 January 1979 editorial

341 Times of Zambia, 31 January 1979 editorial

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Introduction
The newspaper attacked “top leaders including cabinet ministers” who
owned Southern Province Farmers’ Improvement Fund (SPAFIF) and National
Commercial Bank of Kwacha342 It was unhappy with the slow progress in
agriculture the country had made since independence. It said:

That agriculture still contribute only ten percent of the Gross

National Product (G.N.P) is a truly ad reflection of the Party’s agrarian
policy.343

The newspaper even felt that the 1979 Commonwealth summit which Zambia
hosted had diverted the country from concentrating on solving its agriculture
problem.

….the Commonwealth summit will be over in a few days and we

must then face up to stark realities of paramount concern to the
Party and its Government will be the glaring and scandalous failures
of its declared agricultural and decentralization policies.

No policy statement is of any value unless it is implemented. Zambia

is still worse off than ever in spite of years of planning….344

The paper called on the Party to translate its food production policy into
action.345 It supported Professor Rene Dumont’s criticism of development
policies and prediction of famine in 10 years’ time.346The paper said no Zambian
could pretend that there was anything noble about eating nsima made from
South African maize. If anything, it was downright degrading.347

The Times castigated leaders who only preached socialism but did not live as
socialists. It said there was ample and disquieting evidence that many leaders
were only paying lip service to socialism. Many had devoted their talents and
opportunities to get rich quickly. In public they were devout socialists. But in
private they were greedy capitalists. While publicly mouthing socialist slogans
some of them used close relatives, wives and in-laws to disguise their sources
of instant wealth. The newspaper said the Leadership Code had obviously

342 Times of Zambia, 20 June 1979 editoria

343 Times of Zambia, 25 June 1977 editorial

344 Times of Zambia, 26 July 1979 editorial

345 Times of Zambia, 8 September 1979 editorial

346 Times of Zambia, 2 October 1979 editorial

347 Times of Zambia 10 November 1979 editorial

161
Press in Zambia
failed to curb the growth of a new rich class in Zambia.348

The Times of Zambia accused virtually most of the country’s politicians of lying.
It said the honest politician was becoming an “endangered species” which was
facing extinction in Zambia.349

The newspaper told the nation in 1980 that the ruling Party was riddled with
many shortcomings. It said in a one-party participatory democracy like Zambia,
the strength of the Party itself was indissolubly linked with the strength of the
nation. Yet it was no secret that all was far from well with UNIP. The Party had
numerous shortcomings and problems in its structure, its moral and, at certain
levels, its leadership.350

Making reference to three members of the Central Committee who were

named in an emeralds probe, the newspaper spoke generally of cases of
corruption by top leaders.

The leaders may not be directly involved in wrong-doing; President

Kaunda explained a few weeks ago that one had to be careful before
instituting proceedings against people named in the reports.
Yet, like it or not, the ordinary people are fast becoming cynical about
the working of our system….351

The newspaper declared that the one-party state was not the “roaring success
that many Party fanatics believed it would be” although it worked. It had
weakened UNIP as a mass a Party352

The paper attacked the Party and Government for “lousy” economic planning
that had denied the Zambian the post-independence expectations of full
employment and full bellies for every citizen.

Alas, this has not happened. There is still hanger in the land. People
are without housing . the prices of goods are beyond the reach of
most Zambians. In general the Zambian is not as ecstatic about
independence as he was on October 24,1964.

348 Times of Zambia, 12 July 1979 editorial and 4 February, 1980 editorial

349 Times of Zambia, 25 November 1979 editorial

350 Times of Zambia , 18 January 1980 editorial

351 Times of Zambia, 2 April 1980 editorial

352 Times of Zambia, 30 June 1980 editorial.

162
Introduction
…There can be no denying the fact that there has been some petty
lousy planning by the Government. Attempts have been made to gloss
over this half-hearted planning, but the fact cannot be escaped that
there has been something awry about our economic planning.353

In 1981, the Times lashed out at inefficient in the Government, saying if it

continued the Government would collapse

The efficiency of the Government operations is in serious doubt. The

Government machinery seems to be grinding to a halt. The left hand
appears not to know what the right hand is doing.

As a result public confidence in the Government has been eroded

left, right and center. Should the trend continue, the Government is
bound to collapse…354

In the same year, the newspaper reprimanded Government officials for using
the V.I.P lounge at the Lusaka International Airport and thereby avoiding to
pay custom duties for goods they brought into the country. It said, in Zambia
where everyone was advocating for a classless society it was self-defeating to
have V.I.P entry gate and another for the common man.355

News stories Critical of the State

Apart from editorials, the Times of Zambia was critical of the State through
its newsstories which exposed malpractices and/or shortcomings within the
Party and Government administration.

In 1976, it reported Bank of Zambia Governor Luke Mwananshiku as having

said that considerable doubts relating to long-term private investment in the
Zambian economy were scaring off investors. He warned the Government
against excessive borrowing as a means of financing Party and Government
and social programmes, because foreign finances were likely to exert undue
pressure on the country’s policies.356

The following year, the Times gave publicity to Finance Minister John
Mwanakatwe’s call to the leadership to stop intimidating those who wished
to express their views on issues concerning the welfare of the masses.
353 Times of Zambia, 7 July 1980 editorial

354 Times of Zambia, 6Febraury 1981 editorial

355 Times of Zambia, 9 August 1981 editorial

356 Times of Zambia, 30 October 1976 p.1

163
Press in Zambia
Mwanakatwe told an induction dinner of Lusaka Jaycees that the Zambian
people were being gradually intimidated to accept views or opinions with
which they completely disagreed. He said he had seen“overtones of despotism”
in statements made recently by some leaders and if the Party and Government
encouraged intolerance, free expression would not be maintained in the
country.357

A page one caption story in 1977 revealed that Party youths in Lusaka were
pouring water on street vendors found selling scarce commodities like coffee,
tea and black polish at exorbitant prices. A picture accompanying the caption
showed a wet street seller in front of the Party’s office whom the Party youths
had allegedly poured water on.358

In a story headlined, “Ministers caught in ant-poaching police dragnet,” the

Times disclosed in 1978 that some Ministers in the Government had been
caught poaching animals from game parks.359

The Times always gave front-page treatment to the stunning revelations of

the Auditor General about the Government misusing public funds.360 The
paper gave page one lead story coverage in 1980 to Mwananshiku’s expected
statement that the country’s foreign exchange and balance of payments
were unhealthy.361The announcement had been prompted by editorials of
December 10 and 12 in the Times of Zambia which urged the central bank to
indicate to the nation just what the position was.

Back in 1979, the newspaper had given prominent coverage to the allegation
by Director of Public Prosecutions Chad Kawamba that cases for top leaders in
the Party and Government were being harshed up.362

When three members of the Central Committee and one Cabinet Minster were
implicated in illegal trafficking of emeralds, the Times did not hesitate to real
the news.363

357 Times of Zambia, 7 November 1977 p.1

358 Times of Zambia, 23 July 1977 p.1

359 Times of Zambia, 19 January 1978 p.1 and Times of Zambia, 17 September 1981 p.1 “Game Scandal”

360 Times of Zambia, 10 August 1978 p.1 “Big Spenders exposed,” Times of Zambia, 18 January 1980 p.1 “KK
Overspent” Times of Zambia, 20 January 1980 p.1 “Disaster fund shock – Auditor General reveals missing cash,”
Times of Zambia, 7 February 1981 p.1

361 Times of Zambia, 18 December 1980 p.1 and 9 March 1983 p.1

362 54Times of Zambia, 31 January 1979 p.1

363 Times of Zambia, 31 January 1979 p.1

164
Introduction
Party and Government Reaction
The reaction of the State to the calls by the Times of Zambia for press freedom
to be maintained and its assertion of that freedom by attacking it was two-
fold. First, it assured the newspaper that press freedom would be maintained.
Second, it defended itself from the newspaper’s attacks.

The first to give the assurance in 1976 was Information and Broadcasting
Minister Unia Mwila who pledged that the Party and government had no
intention of directly controlling the material content of newspapers. Dispelling
fears of any Government meddling in operation of the national mass media,
he said the fact that all major communication media in the country would in

Picture

165
Press in Zambia
Times of Zambia trainee journalists visiting a mine accompanied by Vernon
Wright their chief trainer (third from left) Mr. Wright was Times assistant editor
future be financed and controlled by the Party and Government did not mean
that the State would control the material content of newspapers.364

President Kaunda himself repeatedly pledged that the Zambian press would
continue to be free. He often linked press freedom with true democracy. In
1978, the President told the Lusaka Press Club:

The question of the Press and Press Freedom had been discussed on
several occasions at Central Committee and Cabinet levels, with a
general consensus that the nation would benefit greatly from a press
that was left alone to contribute freely.
This decision has been made because the Party and Government
were firmly convinced that self-criticism was an important fact in the
development of the nation.365

For Kaunda, Zambian democracy would be incomplete without a free press.

While swearing in former Times of Zambia editor-in-chief Milimo Punabantu
as his special assistance for the press, the President declared in 1977 that:

The Party and Government attached great importance to the role of

the Press in a one-party participatory democracy. We would therefore
not like to muzzle it at all because our democracy will be incomplete
without a free press.366

Punabantu himself told a Lusaka Press Club dinner in 1980 that the press
in developing countries was to close to the system of political power that
sometimes it could get suffocated.367 He was, no doubt, thinking of the
Zambian press.

But in 1980 the State did make a legal attempt to muzzle not only the Times
of Zambia but the Zambian press as a whole in the proposed Press Council Bill
that was due to be introduced in Parliament that year. As already noted, had
the repressive draft Bill been passed into law, it would have made newsmen
and newspapers in the country answerable to the Party for their journalistic
work through a Party-dominated Press Council. That would have marked the
end of the freedom of the press in Zambia. fortunately, the State seemed to
364 56Times of Zambia, 3 August 1976 p.1

365 Times of Zambia, 30 April 1978 p.1

366 Times of Zambia, 24 March 1977 p.1

367 Times of Zambia, 16 February 1980 p.5

166
Introduction
have headed protests from journalists against the Bill and did not rush it to
Parliament. By 1983, the draft Bill had not become law, as we have already
seen.

The Wrangle Between Parliament and the Times

The wrangle between Parliament and the Times of Zambia started in

1969 when Dunstan Kamana, then editor-in-chief, aptly referred to the
people’s House a “rubber Stamp”. The remark was prompted by an unusual
Parliamentary procedure in which a Bill that had been rejected by the House
was re-introduced and passed.

Early in 1970, the Constitutional Amendment Bill was thrown out of the House
after only 68 UNIP members present voted for it. Seventy-three votes, two-
thirds of the members, were required for the Bill to be [Link] working days
later, Vice-President Simon Kapwepwe re-introduced the Bill which was to give
Government power to include defense expenditure in the general accounts
thus concealing details. Kapwepwe introduced a motion suspend Standing
Order 36, to allow the Bill to be presented a second time in the same session.
Moving the suspension Kapwepwe said the failure of the Bill the previous
Friday was “to be regretted”. It was important, he added, that the Bill should
become law before the estimates for 1970 were to be presented in two days’
time. Kapwepwe told the House that the estimates for the year had already
been prepared and printed on the basis that the Bill” would have become law
before their presentation.” “It is too late now to have new estimates printed,”
Kapwepwe said, Speaker Robinson Nabulyato obliged, despite protests from
the unofficial ANC opposition. The Bill was passed into law by 80 UNIP votes.368
But according to Standing Order 36 of the National Assembly:

No motion or amendment shall be moved which is the same in

stance as any motion or amendment which during the current
session has been resolved in the affirmative or negative, unless the
order, resolution or vote on such motion or amendment has been
rescinded.369

Kapwepwe’s motion was not to rescind the Bill. Kamana spoke in an editorial
against what he called “manipulation of the law” by the Government. The
editorial read in part:

368 Times of Zambia, 28 January 1980 p.1.

369 National Assembly, Republic of Zambia, Standing Orders (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1974) p.21

167
Press in Zambia
The writing is on the wall. What is painful is that although the writing
is disastrous, it is written on about the most expensive wall available
in the country.

It must be clear those that can read that Zambia’s most expensive
rubber-stamp is our most worthy National Assembly. It cost the
country and the taxpayer K3,000,000 …

But unfortunately it has made it abundantly clear, even to laymen

like us, how manipulatable the laws it passes are. Especially if the
manipulation is being done by those who drafted the law.
For yesterday’s Parliament underlined one thing. It was the fact that it
no longer matters about saying anything in the House for or against
any Bill, because if it is defeated it will be brought back until the
Government wins it…

Our 85 members on Government benches could surely have found

more justified methods of getting what they wanted without the
apparent denigration of the most important institution in our
country.370

Kamana was summoned before the House’s Standing Orders Committee to

apologies for the remarks. He did, reluctantly.371 In doing so he set a precedent
for a long-drawn wrangle between Parliament and the Times of Zambia.

In January 1977, the two institutions were again at loggerheads. Bahati Member
of Parliament Valentine Kayope made a statement in Parliament criticizing the
appointment of John Musukuma as Times of Zambia editor-in-chief, replacing
Punabantu, and the re-appointment of sacked Saidi as his deputy.

Musukuma retorted to Kayope’s remarks, which were published quoting an

uncorrected transcript of Parliament Debates, with an open letter to Kayope. In
the letter, Musukuma charged the Kayope had chosen to use the high pedestal
of the National Assembly as a platform to air his views

You must have known that neither Mr. Saidi nor I use the same forum
to air personal views as we do not bear the initials MP after our
names.

370 Times of Zambia, 28 January 1970 editorial

371 Kamana told me in a short interview with him on 19 April 1984 that he apologized before the Standing
Orders Committee and his apology was published in the Times of Zambia

168
Introduction
By electing to make your remarks in Parliament, you actually chose
a boxing ring where your opponents were dragged into a fight with
their hands tied behind their backs.372

Kafue MP Francis Matanda subsequently raised a point of order on the open

letter on whether it was permissible for any newspaper or news media to
quote an uncorrected transcript of Parliament Debates. He also wanted to
know what Musukuma meant by those remarks because MPs knew that the
press was adequately represented in Parliament by the Minister of Information
and Broadcasting.373

Musukuma was found with a case to answer and on January 27, 1977 was made
to apologies behind the bar of the House for the remarks and for publishing
uncorrected transcripts of the daily Parliamentary Debates. Speaker Nabulyato
took the opportunity to scold him.

I have to inform you that the House which is the Supreme Legislative
body of the High Court of Zambia, through the Standing Orders
Committee which is also the committee of privileges, had adjudged
you guilty of gross contempt of the people’s Parliament and breach
of its privileges by publishing extracts from uncorrected transcripts
of the daily parliamentary debates without permission of Mr. Speaker
and for sending a scandalous and most irresponsible threatening
open letter to Mr. Kayope thus misusing your position as editor-in-
chief of the newspaper.374

The Speaker said Musukuma’s violation of his prerogative, the intimidating

language used and the demanding commands made in the open letter
were a gross affront to him and a fragrant disobedience of the authority of
Parliament

The House was and still is disgusted to see that you John J. Musukuma
used a public medium to air your personal views on your appointment
to a position of trust in the land.

Your views made unfortunate and regrettable reflections on the

appointing authority. Your complete disregard of the presence of a
Government Minister in this House charged with the responsibility
of looking after all matters affecting media and the direct incitement
372 Times of Zambia, 19 January 1977 p.1

373 Times of Zambia, 20 January 1977 p.1

374 Times of Zambia, 27 January 1977 p.1

169
Press in Zambia
of the House against the Head of State, all these show your personal
attitude to the people’s institution and disregard of authority above
you in general.375

Musukuma quietly disappeared from the Times eight months later in

September when his successor, Naphy Nyalugwe, was appointed.376 Nyalugwe
hardly had time to settle in the editor’s chair when Nabulyato was called upon
again to rule on yet another Times of Zambia case. This time the offence was
the publication of what the speaker called “dead issues – matters he had ruled
out of order. Mpika West MP Otema Musuka raised the point of order saying
the press had often reported on proceedings ruled out of order by the Chair.377
As the nation was waiting for the Speaker’s ruling Nyalugwe tried to pre-empt
the situation by making a veiled attack on Parliament. In an editorial he said
the people of Zambia had a right to know what was being said in their name
by the leaders whom they elected. They had a right to know the truth about
daily event s in Zambia and the world at large.

Our position is firm. We will not be intimidated nor deflected from our
task. We will go on reporting speeches and events as they happen.
We will continue with our aim of presenting a balanced reporting of
news which is in the national interest…

Zambia is not a dictatorship. Dictators start by muzzling the press.

Zambia is a participatory democracy.

Once the press becomes the tool of special interests then democracy
and freedom are in jeopardy. We will not sit back and allow that to
happen.378

On 6 April 1978, Nabulyato in his ruling charged that the press, particularly the
Times of Zambia, was creating unnecessary conflicts between Parliament and
the Party. The speaker said he had on numerous occasions given guidelines to
the press not to publish any matter ruled out of order but the Times of Zambia
had found it fit to publish “dead” issues. He said there was sensationalism
among journalists whose motives in so far as parliament coverage was
concerned he had investigated.

These motives included publishing “dead” issues or matters ruled out of order
375 Ibid

376 Nyalugwe was appointed Times of Zambia editor-in-chief in September 1977.

377 Times of Zambia, 8 December 1977 p.1

378 Times of Zambia, 9 December 1977 editorial.

170
Introduction
during debates, which tended to incite the parties concerned into pursing
the issue, causing animosity; publishing issues one-sidely, by giving only the
side of MP’s contributions – usually the criticisms – which caused unnecessary
hostility; and, keeping silent on the good work which Parliament preformed
but concentrating on its mistakes or “dirty work”.

Nabulyato said his investigations had showed that there could be an attempt
to remove or override and even usurp some of the constitutional powers of
Parliament, hence the one-sided reports.

He charged that his investigations had also revealed that the two editor-in-
chief had planned a private strategy against Parliament.

Nabulyato said the Times of Zambia had been treating Parliament as an

imaginary enemy of the revolution, although all MPs were members of UNIP
which was the only political party in the country. He appealed to MPs, however,
to forgive the press for past mistakes.379

The Speaker’s ruling seemed to have fanned the fire in the House. Members
of Parliament repeatedly attacked the press, particularly the Times of Zambia,
in what Minister of Information and Broadcasting Unia Mwila described as
“a hail of House”. The Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail replied to
the abuse by boycotting the coverage of Parliament for at least a month. But
Mwila denied that the two newspapers had staged a boycott of the House,
saying they had merely lost enthusiasm for covering its proceedings.380

In a rejoinder to Mwila, the Times said it would go on reporting any abuse

of office that would come to its attention, despite the noises from “petty
politicians and touch officials.” It was not the newspaper’s task to wield a
whitewash brush to cover the ugly patches in the society.381

A few weeks later, former Minister of Home Affaires Aaron Milner moved an
unprecedented motion for the House to discuss the Zambian press. Milner who
was quite vocal against the Government was, apparently upset by an editorial
in the Times which said those who were criticizing the Party concerning
policies which they helped to formulate should quit the Party. It referred to
criticism as cheap short term election tactics by people who had climbed to

379 Times of Zambia, 7 April 1978 p.1

380 72Times of Zambia, 2 February 1978 p.1

381 73Times of Zambia, 3 February 1978 editorial

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Press in Zambia
power and affluence through UNIP.382

Opening the debate on the motion, Milner accused the Times of harbouring
“hidden interests bent on destroying the unity of the country,” he appealed
to the Government to “do something about the paper before it is too late.”
He charged that the Times of Zambia had taken sectional interests in the
country. It was no longer the national paper it used to be. Livingstone MP
Arthur Wina said he was suspicious that there was a secret control behind the
Times to disguise the leadership and take it somewhere else. Another former
Minister Axon Soko, MP for Lundazi, said the problem of the Times has been in
the country for a long time and that, the editorials of the paper were “getting
worse”.

We are getting on a head-on collision with unknown people. There

must be a system of checking on these editorials.383

Bahati MP Valentine Kayope said the Times of Zambia had become arrogant
and contemptuous to its leaders. Chililabombwe MP Sefelino Mulenga, also
a former minister, said as a member of the board of directors of the Times he
was looking forward to the next meeting to map out its future editorial policy.
Ironically Mulenga suggested to the House that the newspaper would die a
natural death if the people stopped buying it.384

The Minister of Information and Broadcasting Unia Mwila defended the

press as a whole and the Times of Zambia in particular amid heckling and
interruptions from backbenchers. He said the freedom of expression that
existed in the country must be enjoyed by all, including the Times. He ruled
out any interference of the press, saying the success of the mass media in
Zambia would depend on the extent to which it was allowed to operate freely
without interference.385 Mwila was forced to abandon his speech because of
too many interruptions and heckling from backbenchers.

In February 1980, the Times of Zambia published two editorials which again
brought it at loggerheads with Parliament. In one of them the newspaper
agreed with the Speaker’s remarks about declining standards of parliamentary
procedure in the House. The editorial teased on MP for sobbing when making
a maiden speech and another for speaking at such “supersonic” speed that
the House’s recording machines couldn’t keep up with him. It said MP’s should
382 Times of Zambia, 15 February 1978 editorial

383 Times of Zambia, 2 March 1978 p.1

384 Ibid

385 Ibid

172
Introduction
not turn the House into a circus.386

The second editorial, published a week later, criticized MPs for declaring in
the House that the “Party was dead”. The editorial said the MPs themselves
constituted the Party and should not dare to stand up in Parliament to moan
that the Party was in a bad way.

If Party membership is low what is the MP doing to increase it?

Shouting off his mouth in one long parliamentary moan is not the
way to increase it…387

the Times said. Later the Speaker ruled that the newspaper had again breached
parliamentary privilege by publishing the two editorials. Like Musukuma
before him, Nyalugwe was summoned to apologies to the House for “gross
contempt” and “breach of privileges” of Parliament.

In a lengthy reprimand of Nyalugwe, the Speaker ordered the editor to publish

the apology on the front page of the Times of Zambia. He said:

all the insults Nyalugwe and other misguided and irresponsible

pressmen had been hurling at Parliament had unfortunately
included the Head of State since the President was part and parcel of
parliament, according to the Constitution.

He said the editorials were a callous misrepresentation of the constitutional

functions of the House and the duties of Hon. Members.
The Speaker said Nyalugwe and other “irresponsible” pressmen like him
were living in a fool’s paradise where they wrongly believed that freedom
of expression contained in the Constitution of Zambia was a monopoly of
members of the press. Parliament was determined to protect its privileges by
even sending offenders to jail.

The House would have decided on a much stiffer punishment like

sending you to prison or levying a heavy fine on you or both, since
your paper is in the habit of committing these breaches388

the speaker said. But the following day after publishing the apology, the
unrepentant Nyalugwe and the Times asserted the freedom of the press to
criticize Parliament in the following editorial:
386 Times of Zambia, 2February 1980 editorial

387 Times of Zambia, 9 February 1980 editorial

388 Times of Zambia, 29 February 1980 p.1

173
Press in Zambia

If Zambia endures for a thousand years and whatever changes she

may under go, there can be no doubt that Parliament will continue
to exist in one form or another

Our recognition of the importance of Parliament and the need for

everybody to guard and cherish its privileges has never been in
doubt. Parliamentary privileges is (sic) a vital safeguard to the liberty
of the citizen.

Those privileges involve freedom of speech and debate in the

Assembly and, to quote the Constitution, “Such freedom of speech
and debate shall not be liable to be questioned in any court or place
outside the Assembly.”

However, lover of freedom will be saddened to note the editor of this

newspaper was compelled, on pain of threat of imprisonment, to read
an apology before the House.

Charges ranged from “gross contempt” to “breach of parliamentary

privilege,” We apologies that MPs have every right to say whatever
they like in Parliament. That is vital.

But there is an imperative need for the Press to enjoy a similar right if
the liberty of the individual is to be safeguarded at all
The freedom of the Press and the freedom of an editor to work
normally and responsibly as he sees fit on behalf of his readership is
as much an indispensable bastion of liberty in any free society as is
the untrammeled workings of Parliament.

In a very real sense the freedom of Parliament and that of the Press
are two wings which sustain the dove of liberty in flight.
If either one should use its powers to assail the rights of the other it
is liberty itself which is the victim. In such an event neither is able to
function for long

Without a free press and a free Parliament the cause of liberty is

completely lost. It is to be hoped that this will not be so in Zambia.

Assertions that comments in this column have been inspired by a

desire to drive a wedge between the Party and Parliament are most
unfortunate at this time of Zambia’s development, when unity is

174
Introduction
vital.

So too is the suggestion that making any adverse comment on

Parliament is somehow a reflection on His Excellency the President.

For then we would rule out public criticism of any member of the
Central Committee, the Cabinet, the governing bodies of our
parastatals, the judiciary and others.

It is truly not right to seek to drag in the name and office of the
President in order to seek to inhibit the freedom of the Press

It is not part of the responsible conduct of a national newspaper

to submit to having its views censored. Neither is it necessary for
the Press to form a mutual admiration society with other bodies in
seeking to discharge its duty to the people.

Public criticism is part of the price of public office in any free society.
Parliament is not a secret society. It is a public forum where the
legislative business of the nation is conducted.

It is the duty of the Press to report the views of journalists and others
on these proceedings and to comment freely without any fear of
victimization.

If at times Press comments on Parliament fall short of wonder,

admiration and veneration, well, that is all part of life.
But to react to criticism or comment with cries of “sorry privilege” is
to abuse privilege.

If MPs wish to shirk criticism behind the barrier of parliamentary

privilege, and in doing so destroy the freedom of the Press, it is
certainly well within their power to do so

Over sensitivity is not the best means by which the privileges of

Parliament may be safeguarded. Neither is the moronic cultivation of a
form of monomania on questions affecting the dignity of Parliament,
the wisest way to uphold it.

It is the conduct of MP’s themselves which, in the long run, is

the ultimate guardian of their privileges and the dignity of their

175
Press in Zambia
reputation

We do not want to precipitate an unfortunate constitutional crisis

over parliamentary privileges as opposed to the freedom of the
Press. Both institutions must be allowed to serve the nation in their
separate unique ways.

If Parliament in Zambia can be counted on to endure for a thousand

years so too may the Press. Both are vital to our democracy.389

Subsequently, Kapoche Member of Parliament Ben Zulu raised a point of

order in the House alleging that the editorial was contemptuous of the House
because it compared press freedom to that of Parliament. Zulu wondered
whether Nyalugwe was right to saying he was at pains to apologies. He wished
to know whether Nyalugwe was sincere in his apology.390

In his ruling, the Speaker said Parliament might tolerate criticism but not
insults. He, however, appealed to MPs to refrain from being oversensitive to
Press reports and “avoid using a hammer to kill a fly.”391

Thus the battle between the Times of Zambia and Parliament – a battle which,
in the opinion of this historian, was clearly wan by the Times since it refused to
be cowed into submission by the all-powerful Parliament. In 1983, the Speaker
implicitly conceded to this defeat when he told the House that the press was
free to criticize decisions passed in Parliament. He was ruling on yet another
point of order by Zulu who alleged that a story in the Times on educational
reforms was a criticism of what was discussed in the House and, therefore,
constituted contempt of Parliament.392

ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL: 1975-1983

Although the Zambian Government acquired the Zambian (Daily) Mail in 1965,
the Newspaper was only recognized as the official Government mouthpiece in
January 1970.393 we saw in chapter VI how the Mail, beginning in 1967, became
more and more critical to the Government. Even as the official Government
organ, the Mail of the 1970s and early 1980s asserted a considerable amount
of independence both in its news as well as editorial coverage.
389 Times of Zambia, 1 March 1980 editorial

390 Times of Zambia, 6 March 1980 p.1

391 Times of Zambia, 19 March 1980 p.5

392 Times of Zambia, 19 March 1983 p.1

393 Times of Zambia, 8 January 1970 p.1

176
Introduction

The newspaper clearly made good use of the mandate from the Government
for it to report and comment as it wished, in 1965, President Kaunda had told
the newly acquired newspaper that he would not allow it to report “my every
cough,” that it would not simply be a Government trumpet.394 Minister of
Information during the take over, Lewis Changufu, had warned in the same
year that he did not want to hear of anybody, even a minister, going to the
Mail’s office and telling the editor what to do or not do.395

TABLE 12

SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL

PAGE ONE LEAD STORIES
PAGE ONE LEADS
YEAR KK OTHERS TOTAL
1976 33 277 310
1977 48 262 310
1978 55 255 310
1979 48 262 310
1980 49 261 310
1981 36 274 310
1982 53 257 310
1983 76 234 310
TOTAL 398 2082 2480

Indeed the Mail, which as we saw in Chapter V was the first newspaper to
affectionately refer to President Kaunda by his initials of “KK”,396 literally made it
a point not to report KK’s “every cough”. In some of Zambia’s neighbours at the
time, what their President said automatically made page one lead stories in
their newspapers regardless of whether they were government-owned or not.
But it was not so with the Mail. Table 12 shows, the newspaper, in fact rarely led
its page one newsstories with KK. Between 1976 to 1983, there were 398 “KK”
leads, as against 2082 “others”. In other words the newspaper led with KK only
once a week, on the average.

Moreover, some of the “other” page one news leads exposed some kind of
weakness in the administration. Table 13 shows that the number of such

394 The Northern News, 19 February 1965 p.1

395 The Northern News, 18 June 1965 p.1

396 See Chapter V, footnote 20

177
Press in Zambia
critical leads fluctuated from zero to four per year from 1976 to 1983. their
contents included revelations that state shops were found hiding soap ‘for
top people’.397 ‘card (UNIP) checking at places of work not the best way of
encouraging productivity’,398 ‘Party machinery is rotten – Milner,’399 ‘Zambia

TABLE 13
SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL
PAGE ONE LEADS CRITICAL OF THE STATE

YEAR LEADS CRITICAL OF STATE

1976 1
1977 3
1978 2
1979 4
1980 1
1981 1
1982 2
1983 0

in balance of payments crisis,’400 ‘economic future beak’401 ‘State farms will flop,
says Lumina,’402 and Kanyamagate Scandal: Minister to be tried’403

Apart from page one leads there were, of course, many newsstories on page one
and in the inside pages which were critical of the State, its functionaries or at
least wings of it. They included ‘MCCs Ministers are hypocrites – Chikwanda.’404
‘Government exploiting workers,405 ‘Mrs. Mudenda (wife of Central Committee
Member Elijah Mudenda) held,’406 ‘Poor Grade 7 results spark protest: we won’t

397 Zambia Daily Mail, 27 May 1976 p.1

398 Zambia Daily Mail, 20 January 1977 p.1

399 Zambia Daily Mail, 8 October 1979 p.1

400 Zambia Daily Mail, 18 December 1980 p.1

401

402 Zambia Daily Mail, 2 December 1981 p.1

403 94Zambia Daily Mail, 22 January 1982 p.2

404 Zambia Daily Mail, 12 April 1982 p.1

405 Zambia Daily Mail, 22 October 1977 p.1

406 Zambia Daily Mail, 1 October 1979 p.1

178
Introduction
renew cards,’407 ‘Leaders running pirate taxis,’408 ‘Stay girls get water treatment’
(from UNIP Women’s Brigade in Livingstone),409 ‘Party erred –Mudenda,’410 and
‘big shots behind smuggling.411

Editorials Critical of the State

As can be seen from Table 14, the Zambia Daily Mail, during the period from
June 1975 to December 1983, published a total of 30 editorials critical to the
State. Ten were published in 1981. in 1982 there were six, while 1980 and 1979
had four each.

In 1975, the Mail castigated whoever was behind the order for State shops
to reserve soap for ‘top people’ during an acute soap shortage. ‘There are no
special people in the Party for whom soap should be reserved in State shops,”
said the Mail.412 it disapproved of ‘corrupt’ leaders 413and police force.414

In 1979, the newspaper was unhappy with repeated acts of financial

mismanagement.

Year after year, the pattern is more or less the same. It is as if the
Auditor-General’s reports and recommendations are falling in deaf
ears. It is like nobody cares….415

The following year, the Mail said some of the revelations of the Auditor-General
stunk to the highest heavens.416

It was the Mail’s view that leaders in the Party and Government merely talked
about corruption but did nothing to fight it. It editorialized:

Corruption and inefficiency in our government? Well, yes. Indiscipline?

Oh, sure that too. And what are we doing about that? At best, we
407 Zambia Daily Mail, 26 October 1979 p.1

408 Zambia Daily Mail, 16 April 1981 p.1

409 Zambia Daily Mail, 13 July 1981 p.1

410 Zambia Daily Mail, 20 July 1982 p.5

411 Zambia Daily Mail, 14 December 1982 p.1

412 Zambia Daily Mail, 24 February 1983 p.1

413 Zambia Daily Mail, 11 October 1975 editorial

414 Zambia Daily Mail, 16 July 1976 editorial

415 Zambia Daily Mail, 21 July 1976 editorial

416 4 December 1981 editorial

179
Press in Zambia
prefer to talk about them and hope the culprits will cringe in shame
and exit honourably.417

The newspaper supported former Minister of Finance John Mwanakatwe’s

criticism that Government was overspending , had over employed and had
too many official cars.418 It disagreed with the stand taken in Parliament by
Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney-General Gibson Chigaga in 1981 that
demonstrations at which the public demanded death sentences while the
case of the accused was still going on in courts weakened the judiciary.419 the
newspaper criticized the Department of Industrial Participatory Democracy
for behaving like some “all powerful Governors” even in matters in which it was
not competent like banking.420 The newspaper asked what the Government
was doing

TABLE 14

ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL EDITORIALS CRITICAL OF THE STATE FROM JUNE

1975 TO DECEMBER 1983

NUMBER OF EDITORIALS
YEAR Jan-June July-Dec. TOTAL
1975 - 1 1
1976 1 2 3
1977 0 0 0
1978 0 0 0
1979 1 3 4
1980 3 1 4
1981 6 4 10
1982 2 4 6
1983 1 1 2
TOTAL 14 16 30

about the country’s “bleak economic future.”421 in 1982, the Mail attacked the
Party’s official policy of tribal balancing in appointments, saying

Should the Party, for example, continue with the policy of tribal

417 Zambia Daily Mail, 19 January 1979 editorial and

418 Zambia Daily Mail, 19 January 1980 editorial

419 Zambia Daily Mail, 30 January 1980 editorial

420 Zambia Daily Mail, 7 April 1980 editorial

421 Zambia Daily Mail, 5 March 1981 editorial

180
Introduction
balancing in its present form?

As we have started in the past, the policy has its merits but it has also
caused a number of problems.

It kills the spirit of competition among top managers and other

leaders in politics because there is no point in aspiring for a post
when you know that it is supposed to be held by someone from a
certain province.

There is also some truth in the claim the tribal balancing has
introduced tribalism in the reverse.

A brilliant man aspiring for a post in the Central Committee could be

left out simply because someone from his tribe or province is already
there. Is it fair?

We have suggested in the past that the Party and its Government

The Mail castigated defaulters among the leadership who owed the
Department of Customs and Excise more than K10,00 in unpaid customs duty
at the Lusaka International Airport. It wondered why customs officials allowed
some people to be “more equal than other” in a situation that demanded
strict fair play.422 The paper questioned the right of UNIP Women’s League in
Livingstone to pour water on four girls who had spent a night in a soldiers
camp, saying there was no provision in Zambia’s legal system for Kangaroo
courts.423 The newspaper strongly criticized police for being trigger-happy and
shooting innocent people.424

One wing of Government which the Mail never spared from criticism was
the Ministry of Health, particularly the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in
Lusaka. It made breath-taking revelations of what it called criminal negligence
by authorities at the UTH of Sinoia Chisale who was discharged with exposed
intestines and Markford Mwila whom UTH doctors sent home because they
had no treatment fro his over-swollen nose. The nose had swollen so much that
it had joined the upper lip, blocking Mwila’s nostrils and forcing him to bathe
through the mouth. The newspaper said health institutions were supposed to
be places of hope for the survival of the sick.425
422 Zambia Daily Mail, 24 June 1982 editorial.

423 Zambia Daily Mail, 18 August 1982 editorial

424 Zambia Daily Mail, 16 August 1982 editorial

425 Zambia Daily Mail, 11 August 1979 editorial and 18 September 1979 editorial

181
Press in Zambia

The Mail was very good at campaigning for public financial support for helpless
people who needed to go abroad for medical treatment. The most widely
publicised case was that of Pauline Zulu, a child who had a collapsed lung
and a heart problem. For two years, from 1978 to 1980, the Mail campaigned
for donations for Pauline to go for an operation in London. The money was
collected and the child was taken to London several times for tests but
unfortunately died in a London hospital before she was operated.426

The Zambia Daily Mail very often published full-page propaganda material
from Eastern block countries. On rare occasions, the propaganda material was
identified as advertiser’s announcement. But on many times it was not. It was
a mistake by the Mail not to identify the advertisement because journalistic
ethics require that advertisements always be identified as such to the reader.
Moreover, the material gave the newspaper a drab look.

114Zambia Daily Mail, 15 February 1982 editorial

Errors

The Zambia Daily Mail of the1970s and 1980s was generally poorly edited,
containing a number of typographical and editing mistakes. The newspaper
staked its respectability by publishing what was clearly trite material on its
front page. For, instance the paper once published on page one a letter from
D.M. Nkonde who asked what Boma meant.427 The proper place for such a letter
should have been the Letters to the Editor’ column and not the front page
which newspapers always reserve for serious hard news. A similar blunder
was the publication of an appeal by Patrick Nkonde of the National Council of
Scientific Research in Lusaka for a girl to marry him. The story published under
the headline “I’m looking for Girl to Marry,” was accompanied by an overused
photograph of Nkonde.428

The Mail contained so many errors, particularly in early 1983, that some news
source threatened to ban the newspaper from covering them.

Crisis with Parliament.

One institution which actually implemented the threat was Parliament. Early
in 1983, the Speaker banned the Mail from covering Parliament because of
426 Zambia Daily Mail, 24 July 1980 p.1

427 Zambia Daily Mail, 27 July 1976

428 Zambia Daily Mail, 4 April 1978 p.1

182
Introduction
“repeated mistakes”. The occasion was the erroneous naming of Clemens
Mwanza as Member of Parliament for Nyimba. The newspaper repeated the
mistake even after the Speaker had reprimanded it when the offence was
committed for the first time. The Speaker said, when slapping the ban, that he
would only re-admit reporters from the paper into the House if its management
assured him that only responsible reporters would cover proceedings429
The assurance came five months later when the newspaper’s editor-in-chief
Komani Kachinga apologized to the Speaker.430The Ban was then lifted.

A month before the ban, the Mail’s poor editing had caused the Speaker to
reprimand the newspaper for the contempt of Parliament. The Mail had used
the headline “ ‘Dirty MPs Out – KK’”. Speaker Nabulyato told the House that the
newspaper was also guilty of “willful misrepresentation” for using the word
‘dirty’ which was not contained in the president’s address on which the story
was based.431

Earlier before he made the ruling, Nabulyato had guided Members of

Parliament by stating that Parliament had no control over the choice of
headlines and editorial content published in newspapers. He had said that the
press in Zambia was free to criticize and comment on the debates carried in
Parliament because they were part of the tax-payers and voters in the country.
432

Like the Times of Zambia, the Mail had its share of the wrangle with Parliament
for press freedom. A back page sports story with screaming headline “MPS
boob!’ met with strong disapproval in Parliament.433 So did an editorial
commenting on Aaron Milner motion in the House on the Zambian Press.434
Like its contemporary, the Mail was also subject to the ban by Parliament on
reporting so-called “dead” issues.

Outside the House, the newspaper had a lot of pressure from politicians
wanting to dictate what it should or should not report. The Mail replied to all
the pressures with an epoch-making editorial asserting its freedom to decide
what to publish. The editorial read:

429 122Zambia Daily Mail, 18 February 1983 p.1 Another news source who banned the Mail from reporting
him because of its mistakes was Copperbelt Member of the Central Committee Shadreck Soko, see Zambian
Daily Mail, 17 February 1978 p.3 “MCC bans Mail Reporters.”

430 Zambia Daily Mail, 15 July 1983p.1

431 Zambia Daily Mail, 27 January 1983 p.1

432 Zambia Daily Mail, 19 January 1983 p.1 This was a much more accommodating stand by the Speaker than
the one taken during the wrangle with the Times in 1980

433 Zambai Daily Mail, 4 August 1976 p.1

434 Zambia Daily Mail, 5 April 1978 p.1

183
Press in Zambia

One of the most precious freedoms that Zambia must be proud of, is
the freedom to ran a free Press.

Since independence, Zambia has enjoyed unlimited freedom in

running her Press. Thanks to Party and Government, the Press in this
country has been able to offer Zambian readers information to which
they were entitled anyway.

It is because of a lively free Press in the country that we have built a

democracy which is second to non in the world today.

Freedom of the press means the newspaper to be free to publish and

to refuse to publish what they do not want to be published.

But in their freedom to publish what they want to publish, it is only

those people in charge of the Press who must decide what they will
publish.

It is not others to decide how much space must be given to their news
items. This is the essence of the freedom of the Press.

While the country enjoys unlimited freedom of the Press, the Press
must guard against abuses of its freedom.
In this country, the Press has not abused its freedom. It has used
that freedom to unite the nation. It is because it has used freedom in
the right way that this country has enjoyed freedom.

But like in every country, this country has also produced leaders who
look to the Press to build them.

These are the people who, because they cannot make an impression
on members of the public through their own efforts, look to the Press
to do it for them.

And when the Press refuses to be used on their private campaigns on

themselves, they turn to institutions in the land to help them get the
Press to build them even at the expense of a good Press

These are the same people who go about brandishing threats against
the Press it they fail to carry out their orders.

184
Introduction
It is time this gullible clique was told in plain language that the Press
will not be intimidated into submission.

The Press has a duty to the nation. And that duty is to report correctly
irrespective of the effects of the reports.

Every Zambian has a right to have his views made public even if those
views are not liked by some people.

And those who do not like certain views expressed by others have
also a right to have their different views made public through the
same Press

Nobody has any right to stop another man from making public his
views through the Press.

There is also another fallacy which some people fall prey to at certain
levels of leadership.

The fact that the Press in this country is owned by the Party and the
Government does not make them as individual leaders any more
entitled to dictate how the Press must be run

It is the people trained to run the Press who must decide how the
newspaper must be run in the national interest.

It is some leaders new (sic) that when they try to manipulate the Press,
it is their own freedom which they are playing with. And this can be
very dangerous not to the Press but to them because the Press exists
on the sufferance of the people.435

The editorial was unpalatable to the leaders it had attacked. These leaders
continued to agitate that the Government-owned newspaper should exercise
some restraint in publishing the dark side of deeds or omissions of the Party
and Government. They insisted that the piper’s payer call the tune.

Losses

We saw in Chapter V that the Mail of the 1960s never operated at a profit. We
also saw in Chapter VI that it was in fact because it was not an economically
viable newspaper that its chief financier, David Astor, agreed to sell it to the

435 Zambia Daily Mail, 10 December 1977 editorial

185
Press in Zambia
Zambian Government at the giveaway price of 40,000 pounds.

The newspaper did not improve its economic performance in the 1970s
and early 1980s. it continued to operate at a loss. The losses were a source of
constant worry to its owners, particularly during the economic slump of the
mid 1970s and early 1980s which forced the Government to reduce its subsidy
to the newspaper. By 1976, the Mail’s subsidy had been reduced to 90 percent
from what it had been two years earlier in 1974

A worried Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Unia Mwila, had told

Parliament during the debated for his ministry estimates that the cut had
brought about a grave situation for the Mail which was to affect its very
survival. In actual figures, the subsidy in 1976 stood at K220,000. the allocation
hardly covered the cost of six months supply of newsprint which the eight-
page broadsheet required.

It would obviously be impossible for the Zambia Daily Mail to make

the capital outlay to purchase stocks… and at the same time cover
the recurrent trading losses from a subsidy of only K220,000

Mwila complained to the House.436

Year after year, Members of Parliament questioned why the Mail operated
at a loss when its contemporary, the Times of Zambia, made some profit. An
extreme suggestion to solve the Mail’s loss-making problem was made in
1979 by Nchanga Member of Parliament Cosmas Masongo. He appealed to
the House that the Mail be scrapped or sold to a private business concern as
a solution to its “perpetual” loss making tendency. The House was debating
whether or not to grant the newspaper a subsidy of K240,000.

Why should the Zambia Daily Mail continue to receive this money
when we have reduced subsidy on maize? We should just scrap it or
sell it to private business.

Masongo said. Fortunately for the newspaper, his suggestion went

unheeded.437

In 1980, the Mail took a drastic measure to solve its dying economy. Twenty-
one workers, including nine journalists and photographers, were declared
redundant. Making the announcement, chairman of the holding company,
Zambia Publishing Company, Edward Lubinda, admitted the company was

436 Zambia Daily Mail, 20 February 1976 p.1

437 Zambia Daily Mail, 10 February 1979 p.1

186
Introduction
facing financial problems resulting from overstaffing.438 But even after this
drastic step, the newspaper remained in the red. During the budget debate of
1982,then Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Mark Tambatamba
also complained about the reduction of the subsidy for the Mail. He said the
newspaper was spending a lot of money on spares and repairs to keep the
aging Goss printing machine operational. Tambatamba recommended that
the newspaper raise a loan guaranteed by the Government to purchase a new
printing press. That year the Mail was given only K140,000 to buy newsprint.
But the money could only fetch 230 tones of newsprint while the newspaper
needed 7,000 tonnes.439

In 1983, Tambatamba’s recommendation was accepted. A new printing

machine was purchased and was being installed. It remained to be seen
whether the traditional loss-making newspaper would at last make a profit or
at least break-even.440

The Mail’s precarious financial position was made worse by numerous libel
suits in which the newspaper paid thousands of Kwacha in damages. By 1983,
the newspaper was still trying to sort out the biggest libel suit in Zambia’s
history. Former Standard Bank chairman Elias Chipimo was awarded K919,000
by High Court deputy registrar Noah Kabamba. The Mail bought time by
appealing for a stay of execution which it won. By the close of the year, the
newspaper had not yet paid Chipimo the colossal sum.441

Prizes

The Zambia Daily Mail of the late 1970s was renowned for its unique court
reporting in which the writers usually discarded the traditional journalistic
style of inverted-pyramid for the more unconventional but interesting
suspended-interest style. Leader of the Mail’s court reporting team was Philip
Chirwa who in 1978 won the “Best News Reporter of the Year” award. He was
described at the prize presentation ceremony as “the man who has literally
resurrected court reporting.” In the same year, the Mail’s reporters Abby Rusike
and Mann Banda won prizes for the best industrial reporter and best sports
reporter respectively.442

438 Zambia Daily Mail, 25 December 1980 p.1

439 Zambia Daily Mail, 25 February 1982 pp. 1 and 5

440 Kachinga told me in an interview on 12 June, 1984 that the Mail started breaking even at the end of 1983.

441 Zambia Daily Mail, 22 April p.1 21 July 1983 p.1 and 19 August 1983 p.1

442 Zambia Daily Mail, 1 May 1978 p.1

187
Press in Zambia
Syndication

Unlike the Times of Zambia, the Zambia Daily Mail run its own news syndication
service. A senior reporter was set aside, known as syndication editor, to edit local
news stories by the Mail staff and file them to subscribers outside Zambia. the
job was quite sensitive, particularly when stories unfavourable to the Party and
Government had to be sent. There were times when the Zambian Government
delayed the release of news which outside subscribers wanted. News like
Rhodesian rebel leader Ian Smith’s visit to Zambia, at the height of hostilities
between the two countries in October 1977, was not immediately confirmed
by Zambian authorities. In such situations, a syndication editor pressurized by
subscribers who knew of the visit for an updated story, was put in an awkward
position of either not filling the updated story or taking the risk of sending an
incomplete story that did not have confirmation from authorities.

In October 1983 syndication editor Shadreck Soko arrested at Lusaka

International Airport as he was about to board a plane for Swaziland, in the
midst of South Africa, where he was going on a holiday. Police found within
his luggage some of the speeches of President Kaunda. He was detained for
thirteen days during which time he was interrogated.443

PREES ASSOCIATION OF ZAMBIA

Throughout the decades of press history inn Zambia, journalists lacked a

national organisation which they could use as their voice. Press clubs were
formed at various stages in Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe and Livingstone. But these
clubs were social gatherings rather than representatives organizations.
Aware of the need to have a body that would act as a spokesman for all
journalists in Zambia, the State made provision within the proposed Press
Council Bill to have journalists set up a Press Association. But as we have seen
the draft Bill did not come through, although modification were made to it in
1981.444

But journalists took a leaf from the proposal and formed the Press Association
of Zambia (PAZA) in December 1983.445

Chairman of the interim committee Komani Kachinga said the organisation

would look after the interests of journalists and uphold professional standards.

443 Zambia Daily Mail, 24 November 1983 p.1

444 Zambia Daily Mail, 15 September 1981 p.1

445 Zambia Daily Mail, 9 December 1983 p.1

188
Introduction
He said the body would represent all journalists in discussion with Government.
Membership to PAZA was to be a coditio sine qua non for practicing in
Zambia.446By the end of 1983, however, PAZA had not been officially registered
as an organisation.

The period 1978 to 1983 was also characterized by attempts by private

and semi-private business enterprises to establish independent national
newspapers. These newspapers were the Weekend World. Sunday Post and
Sunday Drum. The attempts form the topic for the next chapter.

446 Zambia Daily Mail, 1981 p.1

189
 9
Press in Zambia
PRIVATE PRESS ATTEMPTS COME BACK: 1978-1983

Between 1978 and 1983, Zambian journalists attempted a come back to

private or semi national newspapers. Two newspapers were established in
1978 and 1982 respectively. Both had two things in common: they were weekly
publications which lasted only for a short time.

WEEKEND WORLD: 1978-1979

On 30 June 1978 City Radio Limited, a company owned by Zambia National

Holdings, the UNIP conglomerate, started Weekend World. It was a tabloid
published every Friday, whose motto was: Truth, Honour, and Justice. The 40-
page newspaper promised its readers in the first editorial that it would provide
them with “news to meet the taste of all.” But the newspaper contained any
hard news.

It carried a great variety of weekend leisure reading. It had regular columns

on crime, farming, business, and law development. Africa focus, Wildlife,
cookery, detective tips, book reviews, health, television guide, films review,
children’s corner, music, spots, James Bond comic strip, religion, fiction, black
fire (accounts of guerrilla was in Rhodesia), social page (wedding, meetings
etc), two local comics (Kaminamisa and Kuwa Kuwa), and a chit chat column
called “something to Say …. By Sikini Mabonzo.”

Weekend World specialized on colorful, screaming, and label headlines on

the font page. These were sometimes painted in eye-catching red or orange
colours to catch the public eye. Headlines like:

CRISIS!447
STARVATION!448
SEX IN CLASS!449
WSATE!450

GAME OVER!451
were typical of the newspaper.

447 Weekend World, 9 March 1979 p.1

448 Weeked World, 20 April 1979 p.1

449 Weekend World, 27 April 1979 p.1

450 Weekend World, 28 September 1979 p.1

451 Weekend World, 4 May 1979 p.1

1Weekend World, 30 June 1978 p.1

190
Introduction
Figure

191
Press in Zambia
Another characteristic feature of the Weekend World was its signed editorials
written by the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Arthur Yoyo. The editorials were
mainly on economic issues such as agriculture, wildlife, copper, tourism and
the national budget. Yoyo also editorialized a lot on miscellaneous topics
such as sports, children and Zambian art. He published few political editorials.
None of them were controversial, except, perhaps, the one that supported
the condemnation by the Church of the State’s move to introduce scientific
socialism.452

First signs of the Weekend World’s unhealthy state began to show when the
newspaper started diminishing in size from 40 pages to 24453 and 16.454 On one
occasion the newspaper apologized to readers for reducing the size, saying
it was “due to circumstances beyond” its contro. 455 followers of the Zambian
press knew that the “circumstances beyond the control” of the Weekend World
was shortage of newsprint. The newspaper did not have its own printing press
but was printed by Zambia Printing Company, the Zambia Daily Mail’s printing
company. During this same period, the Zambia Daily Mail itself did not have
enough newsprint.

The next sign of trouble came in March 1979 when the Weekend World
suddenly, without any announcement, started coming out fortnightly instead
of weekly.456 But the newspaper was back as a weekly, again without any
explanation.457 Such unpredictable changes made the Weekend World lose
some reputation. They also made the newspaper’s critics start predicting
that the publication was soon to die. But the newspaper shrugged off the
evil wishes. In an editorial marking its first anniversary, the Weekend World
bragged:

The Weekend World is one year and 13 days old today. The popular
people’s weekly has launched on 30th June 1978 amidst speculation
among its critics that would be one of those “one publication”
adventures.

Like many new ventures, it had its skeptics – plenty of them - some of
them within the trade. These were those sour jaws who were ranting

452 Weekend World, 21 September 1979 editorial

453 WeekendWorld, 8 September 1978

454 Weekend World, 6 October 1978

455 Weekend World, 8 September 1978 p.1

456 Weekend World, 9 March 1979.

457 Weekend World, 30 March 1979

192
Introduction
around about there being no place for another newspaper on the
Zambian [Link] talked of lack of newsprint and foreign exchange
as if they were the overloads of this country’s development.

Even today, they still harbor remote hopes that each week that comes
will see the demise of this publication. We have survived this far and
we shall live to see the next day

We intend to be around this time next year…458

But the newspaper was forced to swallow its own words. it was around the
following year but died barely three months later in October 1979, without
saying goodbye to its readers. Later, Yoyo told an inquisitive Times of Zambia
that the Weekend World had “temporarily halted” publication in order to
facilitate a re-organisation of the company that ran it.

“Once we have completed the exercise. We shall be back in print, either in the
same form or a new one altogether.” Yoyo is quoted to have said.459 By the
end of 1983, the Weekend World had not re-appeared on the streets and was
assumed to be completely dead. Its chief sub-editor Edwin Smokey Hangaala
was earning a living as one of the country’s better known night club singers
and popular folk song stars

SUNDAY POST: 1982-1983

A letter in the National Archives of Zambia dated 27 July 1982, addressed to the
Director of National Archives, announced the arrival of yet another newspaper.
The letter bore the letterhead of

SUNDAY POST NEWSPAPER LTD

P.O BOX 35283, LUSAKA ZAMBIA

It was a request to register the newspaper and was signed by M.J. Phiri,
Chairman. It gave the following details:

Proprietor: Film & Television Co-operative Ltd

Zambia Clay House
Showgrounds
Lusaka

458 Weekend World, 13 June 1979 editorial

459 Times of Zambia, 13 November 1979 p.1

193
Press in Zambia
Printer: Zambia Printing Company
Kabelenga Road
Lusaka

Publisher: Sunday Post Newspaper Ltd.

Andrea Masiye &Co.
Permanent House
Lusaka

Editor-in-Chief: Masautso Phiri

Sunday Post Newspaper Ltd
P.O Box 35283
Lusaka

The Sunday Post was officially registered on 31 August 1982 with the
registration number 398. The same day its first issue came out. It was a 12 page
broadcast with the word “independent” clearly marked on its masthead.

In its first editorial, the Post was proud of its independent status. It promised
to report the news without fear. Objectively was to be its rule rather than the
exception. The Post said being a weekly newspaper it would not print “spot”
news the way the daily newspaper did
But we will try to get behind the news. We will investigate, interpret
and, of course, breathe life into the bare bones of a news story.460

The Post claimed that it was the first newspaper in the history of Zambia
which was not owned by big financiers but by a co-operative wholly owned
by Zambians – the Film and Television Co-operative.

Like the Weekend World, the Sunday Post showed early signs of trouble. Its
second issue was reduced from broadsheet to tabloid and remained that way.
The management explained that the change was forced on the newspaper
by some powerful forces who had decided to withdrawal newsprint from
the printers, Printpak of Ndola, on second fear that newsprint was in short
supply.461 A reader, Richard Nkwanazi prophetically hoped the Post would live
up to expectations and not die a natural death as the Weekend World had
done.462
The journalist quality of the Post left a lot to be desired. It looked like a

460 Sunday Post, 31 October 1982 editorial

461 Sunday Post, 7 November 1982 p.1 Printpak was the company that printed Times of Zambia and the Sun-
day Times of Zambia. Later the Post was printed by Zambia Printing Company in Lusaka.

462 Ibid

194
Introduction
newspaper hurriedly put together full of typographical, reporting and editing
errors. Some readers wrote to the editor to complain about too many errors
and the editor magnanimously published some of the letters.

G.M. of Ndola advised the Post to improve on its spellings. He said there were
just “too many printing errors” in the newspaper.463Servan of the University of
Zambia School of Education while congratulating the newspaper on the bold,
easy-to-read type it had chosen, gave it quite a lesson on reporting from a
layman’s view. He wrote:

….I deplore that you are also guilty of a practice common to the
Zambian newspapers: the habit of casually adding stories to a main
story so that the caption no longer applies.

Let me illustrate. One page one under the caption ‘Forex traffickers
held’, we have half way down, another news item beginning
“Meanwhile, Mr. Mukuma has praised special constables…”

Is it too much to ask for sub-caption? Let us hypothetically argue that

some readers are not interested in “Forex” violations but concerned
about crime and therefore about the activities of the special
constables.

Such readers misguided by the caption, will not read further; they
will miss something of interest to them because it was tagged on to
another bit of news….464

The short-lived Post, however, distinguished itself for its human interest stories
announced by headlines like:

Lobola war rages on465

VD breaks out in Monze466

Sex or cell?467

463 Sunday Post, 14 November 1982 p.4

464 Ibid

465 Sunday Post, 28 November 1982 p.1

466 Sunday Post, 21 November 1982 p.1

467 Sunday Post, 16 January 1983 p.1

195
Press in Zambia
Which were often splashed on the page.

The Post fed its readers with pictures of girls in suggestive postures, exposing
rather too much of their bodies. One such girl was pictured in a wet dress.23
Another picture showed two girls sitting on a bonnet of a Benz car, eating ice
cream. One of the girls lifted one leg, exposing her thighs.468

Like the Weekend World, the Sunday Post reduced its size from 16 broadsheet
page of its first issue down to tabloid pages. Again like the Weekend Word, the
Post quietly ceased publication, without bidding its readers farewell, after only
publishing twelve issues. Its last edition was dated 16 January 1983. by the end
of 1983, the Post had not re-appeared.

SUNDAY DRUM

In August 1983, Sikota Wina, whom you will remember from Chapter V as the
first African to set up a national newspaper in the country in 1958 known
as African Life, started making arrangements for a comeback to newspaper
publishing. Now a retired politician, Wina set out to prepare for the launching
of the Sunday Drum. He recruited the initial staff which included four reporters,
two advertising agents, one typist and an office messenger. He obtained office
accommodation in Renault House, off the Great North Road in Lusaka.
The Sunday Drum was to be a family enterprise with Wina as the publisher
as well as editor-in-chief. Because he did not want to face the same printing
difficulties of the Weekend World and Sunday Post, Wina set out to acquire his
own printing press. By the end of 1983, the first edition of the Sunday Drum
had not come because the printing press had not arrived.

Judging from the careful preparations Wina was making before launching
Sunday Drum, it was expected that the newspaper would survive much longer
than its two contemporary predecessors and than the short-lived African Life
which Wina published and edited from 1958-1961. Was Wina, the first African
to publish an independent newspaper in the pre-independence days, going
to be the person to bring back an independent press to Zambia? only the
future will tell.

In the next Chapter, we summaries in perspective the main trends of the press
in Zambia as presented in this book.

468 Sunday Post, 26 December 1982 p.1

196
10
Introduction
PERSPECTIVE DISCUSSION
Newspapers for White Settlers: 1906-1950

Several general observation may be made regarding the role and management
of the White newspapers during 1906-1950 in Northern Rhodesia, now
Zambia.

First, all such journals were privately owned by local Whites.

Second, the newspapers were political mouthpieces.
They were preoccupied solely with the well-being of the Whites. Thus the
editorial “we” in The Livingstone Mail, Northern Rhodesian Advertiser, Central
African Post and The Northern News nearly referred to either the editor or to
the Whites, never to the Black people of Northern Rhodesia

Third, in all but one case, the owners of the newspapers openly used them to
acquire political office. Leopold Moore, Alexander Scott and Roy Welensky all
got elected to public office mainly due to the campaigns they carried out in
their newspapers, The Livingstone Mail, Central African Post and The Northern
News respectively. The only exception was Northern Rhodesia Advertiser,
which does not seem to have been a one-man newspaper.

Fourth, all four newspapers played an adversary’s role of opposition to the

Government, constantly scrutinizing and challenging the administration.

Fifth, colonial administration by and large left the editors alone to publish
whatever they wanted, including blatantly racist material.

Newspapers for African:1936-1961

Mutende: 1936-1952. the colonial Government established Mutende in 1956

as a newspaper for Africans for the following reasons:

(a) to provide a channel of communication between itself and

Africans who formed the majority of the country’s citizen; to
inform them of the action of Government and to explain new
laws;
(b) to supply useful and relevant material for the slowly increasing
number of literate Africans who through learning to read had
almost nothing to read;
(c) to serve as a link between Africans working in the Copperbelt

197
Press in Zambia
mines and those back in the home areas;
(d) to be used as a community education aid in teaching public
health, child care, etc.

It should be remembered that Mutende, printed in English and four

indigenous, preceded the establishment of radio broadcasting as a tool of
mass communication in the country, it was, therefore, the only medium of
contact between Government and Africans
Given the racist nature of the established White press, a need had clearly
been created for a press for the Blacks. What was not clear was what type of
newspaper would appeal to Africans. The Government did not know. All the
same, it had decided on the experiment, which proved both frustrating and
costly since the Africans rejected Mutende.

Mutende unpopularity was probably due to the following reasons:

(a) the newspapers English was so simplified that it must have
sounded rather paternalistic to those relatively few but influential
Africans who had learned the language. They must have resented
being written down to like children. They no doubt compared
Mutende to the White newspapers and found it unacceptably
inferior not only in language but also in treatment of news.
(b) Moreover, these same influential Africans undoubtedly regarded
Mutende a Government mouthpiece, a conclusion arrive at
after noticing that the newspaper nearly always gave only the
Government side of anything it published, including “letters to
the Editor.”
(c) The idea of a multi-language newspaper I likely not to have
appealed to a good number of Africans. The country had far
more languages than the four (Bemba, Lozi, Nyanja and Tonga),
which the newspaper used. Those whose languages were left
out felt the Government had ignored them. They in turn refused
to support the newspaper.
(d) Mutende’s reliance on readers to supply it with news often made
the newspaper inaccurate and unreliable. There was no way of
checking the accuracy and authenticity of many of the reports
based on readers’ letters
(e) Soldiers and civil servant were handed Mutende free, which
must have suggested both to them and to those readers not
thus favoured that the newspaper was not highly regarded by
the people who produced it.
Due to all or some of the above reasons, Mutende became increasingly
unpopular over the years, yet its circulation figures, except for the period of

198
Introduction
1946-51, generally increased. These gains however, particularly those between
1939-45, were mainly due to the newspaper’s expanding free-circulation list.

The partly free circulation, coupled with a general lack of advertising revenue,
owing to the fact all commerce and industry was in the hands of the White
press, resulted in heavy losses for Mutende. The Government finally decided
not to continue losing money on a newspaper which the majority of the people
it was meant to serve did not want, even if given to them free of charge.

The African Eagle: 1952-1962. in 1952, the Northern Rhodesia Government

arranged with a private company, Africa Newspapers of Southern Rhodesia, to
publish two newspaper for Africans – one for the educated and the other for the
not-so-educated to be subsidized bi it. African Newspaper, however, published
only one newspaper, African Eagle, dropping the plan for a newspaper for
educated Africans probably because it felt the market was not big enough.

The Government continued to subsidize African Eagle for two reason. First, it
hoped that the newspaper, which was dubbed “Successor to Mutende”, would
be accepted by Africans by virtue of being published by a private company
albeit with Government subsidy. Second, it wanted to exercise control over the
newspaper as a means of mobilizing the African population. After some time,
however, it become clear that both objectives would not be realized.

A substantial number of Africans consisting mainly of nationalists, did not like

the support African Eagle gave to the Federation. Moreover, like its predecessor,
African Eagle was also multi-lingual. Its newsgathering arrangements, like
those of Mutende, were also unreliable. consequently, African Eagle too fell far
short of the journalist standards set by the White press.

On top of all this, the Government failed to exert any influence on African Eagle
mainly because the newspaper continued to be published outside Northern
Rhodesia, contrary to the arrangement.
For these reasons the Northern Rhodesia Government terminated its contract
with African Newspapers in 1962.

Privately-owned Newspapers for Africans: 1957-1965

Between 1957 and 1965 there were three types of privately-owned
newspapers for Africans in the country First, there was African Times, owned
by a group of White entrepreneurs who owned the First Permanent Building
Society of which Alexander Scott, who started the newspaper, was the leading
shareholder. This newspaper was edited by an African, Elias Mtepuka, who
soon died. It was discontinued in march 1958 – only four months after it had

199
Press in Zambia
started because its new Southern Rhodesian owners did not approve of its
anti-Federation stand.

Next, there was African Life, published and edited by an African, Sikota Wina.
This newspaper came very close to being the counterpart of the White press,
not only because it was published by an African but also because it completely
identified itself with the Blacks and supported one African nationalist
movement, UNIP.

Finally, there was African Mail, published and edited by two Englishmen David
Astor and Richard Hall, assisted by a large staff of Africans.469 this newspaper
too supported UNIP. However, unlike African Life, it never really identified itself
with the African cause and supported UNIP merely because it happened to
be the party that the majority of Africans in the country supported. Its anti-
Federation stand was based on the same principle.

The above three newspapers had the following characteristics in common:

(a) They all started during a period of political agitation when

African nationalism, which they all supported, had reached
its zenith.
(b) With the possible exception of African Life, they were not
financed by Africans.
(c) They were all aimed exclusively at a Black readership.
(d) They all failed to raise enough advertising revenue to
break-even since the Whites and Asians who controlled the
economy did not want to place advertisement in them.

The Church Press: 1961-1964

The Catholic Church mistakenly, and belatedly, thought the two press camps –
one for the Whites and the other for the Blacks - had created a need for a third
type of newspaper, one that had to be for Blacks and Whites, a peacemaker
type of newspaper. In 1961, it founded The Leader, based on this principle. The
leader was a dismal failure, however. The two races apparently were not ready
for this kind of newspaper. The political unrest of 1961-1962 was the wrong
time for such idealistic attempts at racial harmony. The Leader died after only
three years.

The Church’s next newspaper,The Northern Star (1963-1964) learned a valuable

lesson form its predecessor and supported the winning side, the Africans. But,

469 As already noted, Hall became a Zambian citizen after independence

200
Introduction
like other newspapers which supported Africans, it too ran bankrupt for lack
of advertising revenue.

Transition to a National Press for both Blacks and Whites/Press Consolidation/

Back to Government ownership: Early 1960’s-1975.

With the coming of independence and better education opportunities for the
indigenous people, national newspapers in Zambia had to make the transition
from a racially divide press to one without the racial bias. The change affected
mainly White newspapers, namely The Northern News and the Livingstone
Mail, since they were the one that had ignored the majority of the people. It
took place on several levels.

One level was in phraseology. Words and expressions with racist connotations
had to be abandoned. News pegs as well as general news content had to be
adjusted to accommodate Blacks. Editorials and opinion pieces now had to
be free from racial bias. Editors and other newsmen had simply to ignore a
person’s colour of skin in their copy. This was not easy, for habits die hard. Some
old-guard journalists, particularly on The Northern News/Times of Zambia
were not willing to adjust. Consequently, they were replaced by either Africans
or liberal-minded Whites from the overseas, mainly Britain, USA, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand. The Whites performed the more technical jobs like
subediting, while the Africans at first filled mostly reporting jobs.

Almost simultaneously with the “de-racializing” of the White newspapers, a

big consolidation of the press took place in the country. The Argus Group sold
its newspapers to Zambia to Lonrho, a British firm with large business interests
in Southern Africa. Considering the racial bias of the Argus newspapers in the
country, the sale was itself part of the adjustment to the new reality. The Argus
editors had tried to effect the change themselves but were obviously too slow
about it to suit the new African Government, which warned them to make
the transition swiftly and completely if they wanted to continue publishing
in independent Zambia. the adjustment was completed by Argus; successor,
Lonrho.

Lonrho’s fast-expanding newspaper acquisition in the country, however, was

also the immediate cause for the purchase of the Central African Mail by the
Government, which feared the prospect of Lonrho owing all the country
national newspapers.

Central African Mail, which was renamed Zambia Mail and became Zambia
Daily Mail in 1969, proved to be a unique Government-owned newspaper

201
Press in Zambia
in that it was often critical of the Government. Sometimes the newspaper
expressed views which not only differed but also contradicted those of the
leadership.

The independent Times of Zambia and The Sunday Times of Zambia proved
even more3 critical of the Government and the ruling party, UNIP. Their
outspokenness as well as certain questionable content, particularly the sex
articles, brought sharp reactions from the State. The Government almost
banned The Sunday Times of Zambia for the sex articles, accusing the
newspaper of trying to ruin the nation’s morals.

The first two editors of the Times of Zambia and its Sunday version, Hall and
Kamana, were libertarians.2 Their performance showed that they believed in
publishing “all the news that was fit to print.” They saw their function as that of
keeping the Government and the ruling party from over-stepping their bounds.
The press had to be free from any control or domination by Government
beyond that specified in the law. The two men believed in strong editorials
which often took on the role of a political opposition to the Government.3

2For the libertarian theory of the press see, Fred S. Siebert. Theodore Peterson,
and Wilbur Schramm, Four Theories of the Press (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press 1978), pp 39-71.

3In the interview, Hall said he had refused to continue as editorial director for
Central African Mail when Government bought it “because I felt that this would
be a limitation on my freedom.” Referring to his criticism of the Government
and UNIP in Times of Zambia editorials he admitted:“I was looking at problems
with White liberal ideas which really perhaps were a luxury which Zambia
couldn’t afford after independence. the trouble was, I criticized what I thought
was the failing of the Government as forcefully as I had criticized the colonial
Government.

The Government allowed the editors to exercise their freedom while taking
great exception to some of their excesses. This permissiveness lasted only for
the brief period the country was under a Western from of democracy. When it
was clear Zambia was heading towards a one-party participatory democracy,
the official attitude toward the press began to show signs of change, the press
now too was to toe the line of the country’s new political system and the new
official ideology of Zambian Humanism. This change in attitude was signaled
by President Kaunda at the first national mass media seminar in Lusaka in
1972. in a long address Kaunda called on journalists:

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Introduction
1. Not to conduct themselves as if they were an alternative
Government.
2. To serve Zambian Humanism, not Capitalism or to live in the
colonial past
3. To eschew sensational news
4. To remember that freedom of the press was based on the
right of the people to know, to have access to information. It
was not for the newsman to decide what the people were to
be informed about.

When the country became a one-party state, both Constitution of the

Republic of Zambia and that of UNIP indirectly closed in on Western type press
freedom. The national Constitution forbade the citizens, presumably including
newspapermen, to express opinion or do any other thing in sympathy with
any political party or organisation other than UNIP. The UNIP Constitution in
turn proclaimed that it was an offence for any party member to publish or
cause to be published, orally or in writing, any matter which in the opinion of
the Central Committee or the National Council was an attack on the Party or
a member or official of the Party in relation to his functions as a member or
official of the Party.470

Apart from these indirect restrictions, the one-party Constitution of Zambia

gave the press the unusual rights based on freedom of expression and
modeled on Western democracy. The press in its turn took advantage of this
freedom to the utmost, to the point of almost ignoring the clauses referred to
above. Kapwepwe’s UPP received a lot of publicity in 1973 after the one-party
Constitution had come into force. The self-imposed ban by editors on news
and editorial opinions on Kapwepwe and his sympathizers was only imposed
later and for a different reason.471

Finally, in 1975, the State announced the nationalization of Times of Zambia

and The Sunday – the country’s remaining privately-owned national press.

But the newspapers were not immediately taken over.

Post-Independence Church Press

The “Little” Mirror: 1972 –1983

Without the Church owned National Mirror, the history of the national press

470 See Appendices XVI and XVII

471 Kapwepwe had sued the newspaper for libel and the editors did not want to complicate the case by giv-
ing him coverage

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Press in Zambia
in the 1970s and early 1980s in one-party Zambia would have been different.
The press would have been totally owned by the State.

The National Mirror often spoke out against the State where the official press
feared to offend its master. The newspaper saw its role as that of giving a voice
to the voiceless. These were quite often people who attacked the practice and/
or policies of the Party and its Government in one way or the other. Because of
the circumstances of the time (the controversy surrounding the Presidential
elections of 1978 in which two of the aspiring candidates Nkumbula and
Kapwepwe challenged the Party’s amendment of the Constitution in court; and
the politics surrounding the attempted coup) the Party and Government critics
whom the Mirror gave publicity were referred to as dissidents. Consequently
the Mirror too was dubbed by some State functionaries as a dissident
newspaper which did not deserve to be supported by advertisements from
State companies.

But not all the Mirrors opposition to the State was prompted by the so-called
dissidents. Some of it came straight from the newspaper. The vehement
opposition by the Mirror in 1980 of the proposed Press Council Bill was one
such example. The newspaper published the full text of the draft Bill with
comments which literally tore it to pieces. The State would have probably
gone with the Bill had it not been for the Mirror’s exposure and opposition
to it. By exposing and commenting on the hitherto confidential draft Bill, the
newspaper enabled members of the public to have a go at the controversial
document.

The newspaper provided the Zambian public with “ the other voice,” a voice
that was not inhibited by the status of an official newspaper. The mirror could
afford to bite the State’s finger with the assuring knowledge that it was not
fed by it. The State, in turn, was careful how it handled the newspaper. It could
not treat it like the Times of Zambia, which it had effectively controlled even
before it owned it. Neither could the State treat the Mirror like it did the Zambia
Daily Mail which it both owned and controlled.

The Mirror was neither controlled nor owned by the State but by Christian
Churches in Zambia. because Zambia was a strong Christian country led by
a very Christian President, Kenneth Kaunda, the State allowed the Mirror to
attack it in the name of press freedom. But the State quite often protested,
both privately and publicly, to the Churches asking them to make their
newspaper desist from attacking it. The protests were received with mixed
feelings. On some issues, the Church did tell the Mirror to soften up. On other,
the newspaper became even more stiff, apparently on instructions , directly or

204
Introduction
indirectly, from the Church. For instance, the Mirror’s stand against the State’s
attempt to introduce scientific socialism was steadfast.
In 1980, in the proposed Press Council Bill, however, the State did make an
attempt to muzzle the Church press in Zambia. clause XV of the Code of
Conduct stipulated that journalists in the country were to:

avoid being influenced in the dissemination of news by religious,

tribal or ethnic or any other bias.472

The clause was, no doubt, an effort by the State to stifle the religious press
like the National Mirror, whose guiding principle in the dissemination of news
(which includes its interpretation) was the Christian religion.

The Mirror and the Church

The National Mirror was, however, not critical of the Church. It shied away from
speaking out even when it was supposed to do so. Part of the reason could
have been the fear by the newspaper to bite the finger that fed it. But, as we
saw in Chapter VII, the special ecumenical position of the Mirror also made it
hesitant to point out accusing fingers as a section of the Christian Church, lest
the newspaper be accused of taking sides. An attack on a section of the Church
was likely to lead to a break in the ecumenical spirit. A disruption of the Church
unity was in turn likely to lead to the disintegration of Multimedia Zambia
and, hence, to the death of the National Mirror. This would have been too big
sacrifice. The Mirror, therefore, preferred to sweep the Church’s wrong under
the carpet to signing its own death warrant by criticizing the precariously
united Church.

Indeed, the National Mirror was one of the rare ecumenical newspapers not
only in Africa, but also in the world, born out of a new spirit of understanding
between the Catholics and Protestants – two Churches which elsewhere in
the world had literally been at each other’s throat. The continued fighting
in Northern Ireland which by end of 1983 still raged on intermittently, was
one such example. It was, therefore, a big achievement for the Catholics and
Protestants of Zambia to come together and publish the Mirror instead of
fighting each other.473

In 1982, the National Mirror celebrated its tenth anniversary. An editorial to

mark the occasion read in part:

472 6See Appendix XVIII

473 Multimedia Zambia, the owners of the National Mirror were also involved in religious broadcasting (radio
and television) as well as book publishing, this book being one of their products.

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Press in Zambia
A newspaper with religion as one of its main concerns, which claims to
be independent in a one-party state, whose finances are managed on
the proverbial shoe string, with neither capitalist nor socialist backing,
a steady growing reading public, still viable in spite of inflation, and
has survived the first ten years – DESERVES A BIG PAT ON THE BACK!

This does not mean that the teething problems are a thing of the past.
Ten years is the first jubilee one can celebrate and the paper’s unique
position justifies a serious evaluation of its youth and courageous
planning for the future474

By the end of 1983, the National Mirror was still going strong and looked as if it
would continue publication for a least another ten years – a feat for the Church
national newspaper in Zambia.

State Press Struggling for Freedom

Times of Zambia:1975-1983

The announcement of the Party takeover of the Times of Zambia was made in
1975. but the newspaper was only effectively acquired in 1983. the nine years
that it took the State to buy the Times also marked a period of unprecedented
struggle for press freedom for the newspaper.

While the State still maintained the official policy of press freedom, individual
functionaries with the State, particularly of the Party, made numerous attempts
to dictate to the Times of Zambia what it should and should not publish. The
newspaper refused to be cowed, even though it was aware of its pending new
status of Party newspaper. The Times did not see its new role as that of sensing
praises to the Party and Government day in and day out. It wanted to remain
free to criticize the administration.

The struggle continued with some Party leaders insisting that the newspaper
dance to their tune, it was, no doubt, due to this pressure from some Party
leaders that the State made the surprise move in 1980 of trying to muzzle the
press through the proposed Press Council Bill. The draft Bill was a surprising
step to make by an administration that had always fostered press freedom.
Had it succeeded, the administration would have lost face. An excuse to
suddenly start suppressing the press would have been hard to find by a Party
whose guiding principle was participatory democracy. By muzzling the press,
a key institution in participatory democracy would have been killed and with

474 National Mirror, 29 January –February 1982 p.1

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Introduction
it democracy.

A big area of contention in the struggle by the Times of Zambia for press
freedom involved the question of who had the right to choose what news to
publish. Some Party leaders thought this right belonged to them but the Times
insisted the right to choose what to publish was a journalist’s prerogative.

Politician had no more right to tell a journalist what to write than had to tell a
layer how he should present his case.

The Wrangle Between Parliament and the Times

The wrangle between the Times and Parliament also involved press freedom.
Parliament objected to certain commentaries on it by the newspaper. It also
objected to the Times, and other newspapers , publishing matters ruled out of
order in their stories on parliamentary debates.

Although editors Kamana, Musukuma and Nyalugwe were forced to apologies

before the House and their apologies published, the Times never gave up the
fight. It insisted it had a duty and indeed a right to report truthfully the goings-
on in Parliament as well as comment on them. In the end, Parliament had to
concede that it “might tolerate criticism but not insults.”
“Tolerate” was perhaps too strong a word for an institution whose raison d’etre
id democratic discussion of public issues. This discussion invariably involves
giving and receiving criticism. Any democrat who can not take criticism but
merely “tolerates” it is not worthy the name. For criticism is part and parcel of
democratic government. It is, therefore, something that ought to be accepted
rather than merely tolerated.

Zambia Daily Mail: 1975-1983

The struggle for press freedom between the Zambia Daily Mail and the State
was less vociferous than that between the Times of Zambia and the State.
This could have been due to two reasons First the Times was, as we have
seen earlier, a more outspoken newspaper than the Mail. It therefore tended
to carry on its criticism of the State even after the State had announced its
intention to acquire it. Second, the pending take over by the State, which
lasted from the announcements in 1975 to the effective implementation of
the announcement in 1983, must have made the Times apprehensive of its
new status as a Party paper. The newspaper must have merely continued its
usual critical role, fearing to loose its readers it is changed its policy.
The mail, on the other hand, had been a Government newspaper for over a

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Press in Zambia
decade, less aggressive than the Times but still quite critical for the Government
newspaper. The long association with the Government must have accorded
State functionaries a modus operandi with the newspaper which they did not
have with respect to the about-to-be-acquired Times of Zambia.
But the Mail too did put up a fight for press freedom during the period 1975-
1983 as shown in Chapter VIII. It continued to criticize the administration both
in its news and editorial columns.

In its new, the Mail revealed a number of weaknesses in the way the country
was being administered. In its editorials, it did not spare the administration
whenever it thought things were not going right. It even dared attack President
Kaunda, though not personally, for his tribal balancing in appointments policy.
Indeed, it was no longer the “Government Gazette” that it had once been
dubbed.

Some of the Mail’s finest editorials calling for press freedom, were published
during this period. The classic example was the editorial of December 10 1977
which vindicated the freedom of newspapers to decide what they want to
publish. The Mail told the politicians that it would not be intimidated into
submission over its right to select what to publish.

The newspaper was, however, poorly edited during most of the period. It
contained a lot of typographical, factual and editing errors. The errors made
the mail unpopular with many news sources as well as readers. To make the
newspaper look even worse, some socialist countries, gave it a drab look
through the publication of long speeches of their leaders which they paid for
as advertisements, but which were not always identified as such.
The Mail’s persistent errors led to the crisis with Parliament in 1983 when the
Speaker banned its reporters from covering parliamentary proceedings. The
ban was only lifted five months later after the editor-in-chief Komani Kachinga
apologized to the Speaker and assured him that the errors would not be
repeated.

Finally, the Zambia Daily Mail was a loss-making newspaper throughout its
history. By 1983, it was still being subsidized by the Government. The question
boggling the minds of decision-makers, particularly Members of Parliament,
was why the newspaper should make losses while its contemporary the Times
of Zambia made modest profit.

Privately-Owned Press Attempts Come Back:1978-1983

One semi-private newspaper and another private one made false starts in 1978

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Introduction
and 1982 respectively. The newspapers, Weekend World and Sunday Post did
not make much impact on the Zambian press scene. They merely confirmed
a thesis in this book that the turnout of newspapers in Zambia has been high
mainly due to poor planning and bad economics.

In august 1983, another newspaper, to be published by veteran journalist

Sikota Wina, had still not appeared in the streets but expected to appear.
Judging from the careful preparations Wina was making before launching
Sunday Drum, it was expected that the newspaper would survive much longer
than its contemporary predecessor and then the short-lived African Life which
Wina edited and published from 1959 to 1961. was Wina, the first African to
publish an independent newspaper in the pre-independence days going to
be the person to bring back independent press to Zambia? Only the future
would tell.

These then are the main historical trends of national newspapers in Zambia
– trends that reveal certain important milestones and themes. What can
Zambian journalists and State functionaries learn from the episodes of the
press in Zambia which this book has revealed? The answer to this question is
the subject of the next and final chapter.

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11
Press in Zambia
THE FUTURE
History is a valuable teacher. But only when it is remembered. The history of
the press in Zambia has useful precedents. its episodes and themes provide
good lessons for both newsmen and planners. This chapter will deal with the
most salient of these lessons.

State Press

One theme that spans through the entire history of the press in Zambia is the
State ownership and/or control of newspapers. The tradition was started by
the colonial Government and continued in the post-independence era. State
owned and/or controlled newspapers in Zambia, like the privately-owned
and church-owned ones, have always had freedom to publish what they want
although some State officials have repeatedly tried to dictate to the newsmen
what they should and should not publish.

The journalists have refused to be thus controlled. But their refusal alone does
not, however, explain why State press in Zambia remains free. It has maintained
its freedom because the State want it to be free. Attempts by individual State
functionaries to muzzle newspapers have not been successful because they
have not been backed by State policy. For how long the Zambian official
press would maintain this independence will, therefore, depend on when the
Party and Government would want to change its policy and opt for the tight
control of newspapers. An attempt at this tight control was made in 1980 in
the abortive Press Council Bill.

Losses

The history of the press in Zambia also shows the newspapers published by
the State have always operated at a loss. Mutende, African Eagle and Zambia
Daily Mail were all heavily subsidized by the State.

Writing about the press as a whole, Rosalynde Ainslie has suggested that
where newspapers are not economically viable, the government steps in to fill
the gap as the only alternative publisher. The Mail had been running at a loss
when the Government bought it from David Astor in 1965. the announcement
by the Zambian Government that it had acquired the newspaper to ensure its
continuation, confirms that Ainslie’s observation was, in

1Rosalynde Ainslie, The Press in Africa, p 145

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Introduction
fact, what happened in Zambia with regard to the acquisition of the Mail.475

the main reasons for losses by all the three ‘African’ newspaper was lack of
advertising revenue. Advertising should make up at least 75 percent of a
newspaper’s income. The three newspaper, however, made very little because
the Whites (and Asians) preferred to advertise in the White press, not only
because this meant supporting their own newspaper (Asian too read White
newspapers) but also because the White community, although small, had
greater buying power than Africans since they were better paid. As least for
the first few years as a Government newspaper, the Mail merely inherited the
lack of advertisements. but this does not explain why the Zambia Daily Mail of
the 1970s and early 1980s still made losses. The could only be explained by
bad newspaper management.

Unlike the Mail, the State did not salvage the Times from bankruptcy. UNIP took
over the Times from Lonrho because “it was not right that …. major means of
informing the public should be under foreign control.”476 the Party needed an
effective newspaper to help it mobilize the people for one-party participatory
democracy. The mass circulating Times of Zambia had become very influential
and was just what the Party needed. Moreover, as a private newspaper based
on the Western concept of press freedom, the leadership of the one-party
State had regarded the Times as playing a divisive role.

Press the King-Maker and King-Destroyer

Traditionally, the Zambian press has been both king-maker and king-
destroyer. In the early days, newspapers wee effectively used as stepping
stones to political power. Newspapers like Leopold Moore, Alexander Scott
and Roy Welensky all gained or consolidated their political power through
their newspapers. During the struggle for African freedom, the press greatly
help African nationalists to unseat White colonialists from power. Newspapers
were the only mass media (since radio and television were in the hands of the
Government) available to the African nationalists for the mobilization of their
own kith and kin for freedom struggle.

After Zambia got independence in 1964, newspapers still yielded such

influence that people they supported wee normally promoted and those
they constantly criticized were demoted or even sacked. The editor-in-chief
themselves (unless they did something wrong) were always promoted to
bigger posts at the end of their terms of office. It was, no doubt, this awareness

475 Central African Mail, 30 July 1965 p.1

476 Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia Towards Economic Independence (Lusaka: Government Printer, 1968) p.39

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Press in Zambia
of the power of the press to build or destroy politicians that made the politician
sensitive to what was published in newspapers about him.

Critical Role of the Press.

Closely connected with State ownership of the press is the question of press
freedom. This history has demonstrated that both in the colonial and post-
independence era, State officers tended to dictate to newspapermen what they
should or should not publish. Freedom of the press clearly means newsmen
alone should decide what they should publish. A press where journalists have
surrendered this responsibility to some other people outside their profession
is not free. It is censored. The Zambian State press has constantly resisted
unofficial censorship from politicians and civil servants. The struggle is likely
to continue until (if the time will ever come) the State introduces official press
censorship.

The national State-owned in one-party and humanist Zambia should be both a

mirror as well as a watchdog. As a mirror it should reflect Zambian society both
to itself and to the outside world. It should show the values, aspirations, hopes
and fears of the Zambian people. It should show that Zambians are much like
any other human beings on the globe; that there good ones and bad ones, law
abiding and criminals, lovers and haters among them; that their rulers make
correct as well as wrong decisions. Yet the press cannot and should not be
expected to mirror every aspect of Zambian society. There are areas which, for
the good of al, must be kept secret and which, have been specified by law

The press should not only reflect Zambian society as it is, but it must also point
out why this society bears certain scars, suggesting how to prevent similar
blemishes in future as well as how to obliterate existing ones. This should be
its watchdog’s role.

In the West, the watchdog role of the press is taken to mean that it is the
duty of the press to be on guard against abuse of power in society, especially
in Government. It is thus closely linked with the functioning of Western
multiparty democracy. The press is regarded as the watchdog of the citizens
against authority, the Government. Less frequently it is seen as the watchdog
of Government against misuse of freedom by individuals who might destroy
the State.

It is suggested here that in a one-party participatory democracy like Zambia,

the State press should play both watchdog roles. It should be a watchdog of
the common man against misuse of power by individuals in the Party and

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Government. It should at the same time be the watchdog for the Party and
Government against any individuals, Zambians or non-Zambians who might
overstep their civil rights. The young State of Zambia needs both watchdog
roles in its press in order to survive.

The means by which the press will achieve this double watchdog is simply by
exposure. Corrupt leaders must be exposed. So must saboteurs of the State.

Unfortunately, the Zambian press in 1960s 1970s and early 1980s stood
severely handicapped in performing this function of exposure by an outdated
pres law that was based on Western values. Chapter 70 of the Laws of Zambia,
which dealt with defamation, was basically the same defamation law the
British colonialists passed in 1953. it was meant to serve another society, it
was not meant to be a tool of humanism. It over-emphasized respect for the
so-called honour and property of a few rich individuals at the expense of the
well-being of the poor masses.

For instance, people who embezzle public funds or misuse State property must
be exposed by the press immediately before they do great damage to the
poor taxpayer’s pocket. But the Zambia press feared to expose such people
in order to keep clear of legal suits. Zambian newspapers spent substantial
amounts of their budgets every year settling legal fees and languages.

Sensationalism and Sensational Stories

One of the persistent accusations against the press in Zambia by the politician
has been that it tends to be sensational in reporting. A sensational press blows
issues and events out of proportion. It builds mountains out of molehills. An
important distinction, however, ought to be made between sensationalism in
reporting and reporting sensational stories. Some news events are inherently
sensational with no help from the reporter. On the other hand, many dull, flat
stories can be made to sound sensational by the manner in which they are
reported.

Sensationalism also occurs when a deliberate selection of exciting material is

made at the expense of dull but often nationally important stories. Deliberate
sensationalism for its own sake has no place in the press of a developing
country like Zambia which cannot afford to waste time and money on this raw
form of journalism.
Even in the United States, where yellow journalism began in the 1890s, the
trend has been to move away from sensationalism in news reporting to the
more sober, responsible, interpretative journalism.4 In humanist and young

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Press in Zambia
Zambia, there is even a greater need to interpretative reporting. Journalists
must not only report the news but explain it to the masses as they write it.
Unfortunately, the Zambian press has practiced very little good interpretative
reporting.

Short Lifetime

This history has shown that the lifetime of many newspapers has been short.
The only exception have been the Livingstone Mail, Northern News/Times of
Zambia, African Mail/Zambia Daily Mail and National Mirror. Main reason for
the high turnout has been bankruptcy. The newspaper simply failed

4”Yellow Journalism” got its name from Richard F. Outcault’s Cartoon “Hogan’s
Alley” which he started in 1889 for The World, a New York newspaper. The
cartoon became popularly known as “yellow Kid” because its main character
was a kid in a yellow dress. The Cartoon greatly increased the circulation of the
newspaper. It is later adopted by other newspaper to boost their circulation
and became the symbol of sensationalism in journalism to make enough
money to keep on publishing. There was not enough advertising. In some
cases advertising support was denied the newspapers by advertisers who
objected to their editorial policies.
During the colonial days, it was the White and Asian entrepreneurs who refused
to support the Black press by advertising in it. In the post-independence
period, it was the State-owned companies which threatened to strangle
the outspoken, unofficial press, especially the National Mirror, by cutting off
advertisements. the threat was compounded by some private companies also
threatening to cut off advertisements for fear they might be identified with a
“dissident” newspaper.

Possible State Sanctions Against Recalcitrant Press

The Party, through State-owned companies, could very well use sanctions in
future to starve off stubborn papers. If that happens, the Party itself stands to
lose since it would have throttled free speech and with it, democracy. A loss in
democracy would be harmful to a Party that professes to be democratic.

Another weapon that the State might use against an uncompromising unofficial
press is by withholding import licenses for newsprint. This is especially likely
to be the case during times of economic depression when the State could
very well say newsprint for the unofficial newspaper is not an essential item
on which to waste foreign exchange. If that happens then the unofficial press
would have had it.

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Introduction
The very real possibilities of the State instructing parastatal companies not
to advertise in a recalcitrant unofficial press as well as withholding newsprint
import licenses from it, make unofficial newspapers publishing in Zambia a
gamble. One way to stay clear of this gamble would be to publish a newspaper
whose contents do not repeatedly displease the State. Some editors might
settle for this. On the other hand, the State might just be magnanimous
enough and not apply the two possible sanctions. Another cause of action
left to publishers of unofficial press facing one or both of the possible State
sanctions would be simply to close down their newspapers. Such action is
particularly likely for those publishers who believe so strongly in press freedom
that they refuse to compromise.

Zambia’s State Press Really Free

Zambia has shown that State-owned newspapers can and should be critical
of the administration. That is the only way it can maintain credibility with a
suspicious public. The criticism should be made both in the editorials as well
as in the news columns. Editorials of the State press should continue to be a
reflection of the opinions of the newspapers and not necessarily expression
of the official stand by the Party and Government. This gives editors lee-way
to speak out on any issue without fear of reprisals from officialdom. Through
such independent editorials, the press would provoke public reflection and
discussion on issues it raises and thereby set in motion the democratic process
of public participation in decision-making. This possibility to expose issues for
public discussion cannot be there if the State press always spoke its master’s
voice.

The State press should be critical of the administration by giving publicity

to news and views unfavourable to the State. Such news and views should
invariable include those from people who do not agree with what people
in the Party and Government are saying and doing. The kind of publicity is
necessary as a safe-value for the body politic. It should not be interpreted by
the State as fomenting political opposition in a one-party situation.

The press in there to report news which may be defined as a narration of

factual information about happenings, existing situations, likely events as well
as opinion or ideas in order to assist people both individually and collectively
to prepare themselves for changes in the environment of life situations. A news
reporter’s role is like that of a tribal warrior who stands on the pinnacle of the
village hill, warning his village mates of the approach of the enemy, marauding
elephants, angry lions or whatever danger is threatening the village. He would
be abysmally failing in his duty if he merely shouted pleasantries from the

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Press in Zambia
hill. He would be telling lies. Life, which news should reflect, is a mixture of
pleasantries and un-pleasantries.

Banned and Delayed News

In this light, this author strongly deplores the unofficial ban by the State on
crime stories which was imposed on newspapers towards the end of 1983.
by not publishing the crimes such as the daring armed robberies the country
faced, the press was forced by the State to abscond from its watchtower role.
Through the ban, the State was destroying its own press by diminishing public
confidence in it.

Moreover, the State was at times guilty of deliberately sitting on news which,
for various reasons it delayed releasing to the press. Most of such news involved
diplomatic initiatives with neighboring countries to liberate southern African,
particularly Zimbabwe. In some cases there was no pint in the Zambian
Government delaying the release of the information when the foreign media
had already publicised the news to the outside world. Indeed, many Zambians
were surprised to learn from foreign radio stations what was happening in
their own country, which their own media had not publicised. This tended to
make the public lose some trust in the Zambian mass media for not informing
them when they most needed the information.

On their part the Zambian media personnel bowed their heads in shame,
unable to face both the international press corps and the Zambian public
whom they had let down because on an unco-operative Government. When
finally the Government released the information, local journalists were even
made more of laughing stocks for publicizing stale news. News is a very
perishable commodity. Its value lies in its freshness. In today’s world where
technological devices have made the job of mass communicators so efficient,
where newsmen are able to tell the human race what is happening in all
the four corners of the globe in a matter of minutes and sometimes seconds,
delayed news quite often does not only become stale news but no news.

It is a misuse of the information machines as well as the personnel running

them, to be telling the people what they know already. We are not suggesting
here that government have no right to keep some of their activities secret
either temporarily or permanently, as long as such activities are really secret.
But to pretend that the information is secret when most of the world knows
about it is another matter.

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Introduction
The Press and Parliament

Another problem area concerns Parliament and the press. Relations between
Parliament and the press have been strained, mainly because the former has
accused newspaper of violating its privileges by the manner in which it has
reported parliamentary proceedings . Some of the accusations by Parliament
against the press violating its privileges have been well-founded. But others
border on the frivolous.

The Zambian Parliament as regarded itself vis-à-vis the press as the all-powerful
giant, and the press the weakling. For instance, the Speaker has at times urged
Member of Parliament not to use a “hummer” (Parliament might ) to kill a “fly”
(the press). Erring editors have been severely reprimanded before the House
and threatened with stiff punishment such as imprisonment and fines in what
seems to be an excessive show of might.

It is true, Parliament has Constitutional powers to back its claim of might. The
press does not. However, claim to Constitutional power is not the only source
of potency. People can make an institution powerful without necessarily
declaring so in a constitution. The press is one such institution. A free press, a
press in which people express their opinions freely, has been known to bring
down governments, let alone parliaments.

The Zambian Parliament should, therefore, not refer to the press with such
belittling terms. The Zambian press, as indeed the press anywhere else in
the world, is not as powerless as Parliament would like to think. In as far as
providing a forum for expressing people’s will is concerned, the press might
even be more important to the ordinary person the Parliament. While it is
true Parliament has the Constitutional powers to suppress a recalcitrant the
press too has the vox populi (voice of the people) to constitutional de-elect
an entire House.
Parliament and the press are, therefore two institution which should treat
other with respect. They both have the ability to make people have a say in
running their government. They are each pillars of democracy. If one of them
goes, democracy too goes with it. Any one of them cannot sustain democratic
government without the other. They both help sharpen the government by
being its watchdogs. Government by and large respect and accepts their
criticism as one coming from people it rules.

In criticizing government the press is bound at one time or rather to criticize

Parliament because it is part of government. But Parliament has no right,
although it has the might, to muzzle press criticism of it. Similarly, Parliament

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Press in Zambia
has a right to criticize the press because it is a people’s institution. The press
should accept the criticism and improve on its performance rather than think
Parliament is deliberately trying to pick on it. But it is most important that
when each of the two institutions criticize each other, polite language is used.
While it is true, as the Speaker says that Parliament may tolerate criticism but
not insults from the press, it is equally true that the press cannot stand insults
and being treated like a third-rate institution by Parliament. Parliament and
the press are equal in many respects.

As we saw in Chapter VIII, the insistence by the Zambian Parliament that the
press should not report matters ruled out of order because they are “dead”
issues could lead to a crisis between the two institutions if the press does not
give in. the press may insist, as suggested earlier, that matters ruled out of
order are part of parliamentary proceedings which it is supposed to report.
It may insist that if Parliamentary Debates are able to report to the general
public matters ruled out of order, there is no reason why newspapers should
be prevented from doing the same. It is almost certain that Parliament would
react to such defiance of its orders with some form of punishment to teach the
press a lesson – perhaps a decisive lesson.

Press Council

There is need for a press council in Zambia. the press is manned by individuals
and individuals makes mistakes. There should, therefore, be a body that should
in turn be both a mirror and watchdog on the press. But such a press council
should be formed by journalists and manned by them. It should not be formed
by the Party and used by it to suppress so-called press excesses.
A press council such as the one that was almost implemented in the 1980
draft Press Council Bill which was to be chaired by the Member of the Central
Committee in charge of the press and in which journalists were to have minimal
representation, amounts to a press censorship board. Such a council would
exist mainly to protect Party interests by brining insubordinate journalists to
book. It would not protect the interests of journalists which press councils are
meant to do.
A good press council is one manned by people with journalistic know-how. It
is usually chaired by an independent person like a High Court judge, to ensure
impartiality. Politicians may be represented on it, but they certainly should not
be the majority.

A press council is supposed to be a professional body controlling the journalistic

practice of professionals in the same was as a medical council controls doctors
or the legal council controls lawyers. Just as politicians should not control a

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Introduction
medical council, for instance, they have no right to control a press council. They
are outsiders.

The best judge of a journalist’s performance is a fellow journalist. He alone

should decide what constitutes unprofessional conduct and not the politician
who, apart from not being a professional, is usually biased against the journalist.
This writer is convinced that if ever there was a ‘Political Council’, the politician
would protest strongly if the journalist formed, headed and controlled such a
council meant for professional politicians.

Conclusion

Newspapers usually record history. Rarely do they themselves make it. The
Zambian press has done both. The history it has made and which has been
reflected in these pages is as pertinent for posterity as the one it has recorded.
Zambians should draw lessons from it in order to build a better future. For
the press has a decisive role to play in the future of Zambia. it is the bastion of
democracy.

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Press in Zambia
APPENDIX I
Unesco Declaration on the Press

Conscious of the aspirations of the developing countries for the establishment

of a new, more just and more effective world information and communication
order,

Proclaims on this 22nd day of November 1978 this Declaration on Fundamental

Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening
Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights
and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War

Article II
[Link] by the public to information should be guaranteed by the diversity
of the resources and means of information available to it, thus enabling each
individual to check the accuracy of facts and to appraise events objectively.
To this end, journalists must have freedom to report and the fullest possible
facilities of access to information. Simply. It is important that the mass media
be responsive to concerns of people and individuals, thus promoting the
participation of the public in the elaboration of information

Article VI

For the establishment of a new equilibrium and greater reciprocity in the flow
of information, which will be conducive to the institution of a just and lasting
peace and to the economic and political independence of the developing
counties, it is necessary to correct the inequalities in the flow of information
to and from developing countries, and between those countries. To this end
it is essential that their mass media should have conditions and resources
enabling them to gain strength and expand, and to cooperate both among
themselves and with the mass media in developed countries.

Article IX

In the spirit of this Declaration. It is for the international community to

contribute to the creation of the conditions for a free flow and wider and
more balanced dissemination of exercise of their functions, of journalists and
other agents of the mass media. Unesco is well placed to make a valuable
contribution in this respect.

220
Introduction
Article X

1. With due respect for constitutional provisions designed to

guarantee freedom of information and for the applicable
international instruments and agreements, it is indispensable
to create and maintain throughout the world and persons
professionally involved in the dissemination of information
achieve the objectives of this Declaration.
2. It is important that a free flow and wider and better balanced
dissemination of information be encouraged
3. To this end, it necessary that State should facilitate the
procurement, by the mass media in the developing countries,
of adequate conditions and resources enabling them to gain
strength and expand, and that they should support cooperation
by the latter both among themselves and with the mass media in
developed countries.
4. Similarly, on the basis of equality of rights, mutual advantage,
and respect for the legislative and administrative provisions and
other obligations of Member States, to guarantee the existence
of favourable conditions for the operation of mass media, in
conformity with provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and with the corresponding principles proclaimed in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by
the general Assembly of the united Nations in 1966.

221
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX II
Nyerere’s Charter to the Standard

Today Tanzania’s new “Standard” is born. Government has taken the newspaper
into public hands and appointed its own editor. In the future there can be
no suspicion that this English language newspaper is serving the interest of
foreign private owners. It is appropriate that the public should be informed
on the purpose of this change, the policies, which will be followed by the new
“Standard”, and the manner in which it will operate.

In accordance with the Arusha Declaration, it is clearly impossible for the

largest daily newspaper in independent Tanzania to be left indefinitely in the
hands of a foreign company. In a country committed to building socialism, it is
also impossible for such influential medium to be left indefinitely in the control
of non-socialist, capitalist owners. The reasons for the Government’s decision
to acquire the “Standard” as thus both nationalistic and socialistic. We want
Tanzania to be responsible to the people as a whole. As a nationally owned
newspaper, the first aim of the “Standard” would be to serve the interests of
the people of Tanzania. It will be expected to operate without Government
subsidy but its purpose will be service, not the making of profit.

The new “Standard” will be a socialist newspaper. It will support the socialist
ideology of Tanzania, as defined in Arusha Declaration Parts 1 and 2

The new ‘Standard” will give general support to the policies of the Tanzanian
Government but will be free to join in debate for or against any particular
proposals put forward for the consideration of the people, whether by
Government, or by other bodies. Further, it will be free to initiate discussions on
any subject relevant to the development of a socialist and democratic society
in Tanzania. It will be guided by the principle that free debate is an essential
element of true socialism, and it will strive to encourage and maintain a high
standard of socialist discussion.
The new “Standard” will be free to criticize any particular acts of individual
TANU or Government leaders, and to publicize any failures in the community,
by whoever they are committed. It will be free to criticize the implementation
of agreed policies, either on its own initiatives or following upon complaints
or suggestions from readers

The “Standard” will aim at supplying its readers with all domestic and world
news as quickly and as fully as possible. It will be run on the basis that a
newspaper only keeps the truth to the best of its ability and without distortion,
whether that truth is pleasant or unpleasant The new “Standard will endeavour

222
Introduction
to spread an understanding about socialism in Tanzania among its readers.
By its discussion and its articles, it will demonstrate that the priorities in the
building of socialism are a matter for free discussion among the citizens of
a socialist state. It will thus help to ensure that the people’s will is not only
paramount in Tanzania, but is also seen to be paramount.

The “Standard” editor will be appointed by the President and will have authority
in the day-to-day operation of the newspaper.

Until such as an editorial board is appointed, the new “Standard” will receive
any directives on editorial policy, on employment policies, and on other
matters, only from the President of the United Republic, to whom the editor
will be exclusively and directly responsible.

The watchwords of the new socialist “Standard” of Tanzania will be “The

Socialist Equality and Dignity of Man”. It is in that spirit that it will seek to serve
the citizens of the United Republic, without distinction on the grounds of race,
religion, sex and tribe.

I call upon all our people to cooperate with the editor and staff of this
newspaper, so that it can effectively speak for the Government to its readers,
and for its readers to the Government. That must be its objective. That is how

The Press in Zambia

It will best fulfill its purpose of giving service to the people of Tanzania and of
Africa.

Julius K. Nyerere
President United
Republic of Tanzania
Dar-Es-Salaam
February 4, 1970

223
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX III
Proclamation by His Excellency the
High Commissioner S.A B.S.A Co 1914

During War:

No person shall communicate to any other person any untrue intelligence,

rumour, report, or information unless the person so communicating has
reasonable grounds to believing such intelligence, rumour, report, or
information to be true.

No publication in a newspaper published in the territory (N.R) of any matter

which has been submitted and passed by the Administrator or an officer
appointed by him for the purpose shall be deemed to be a contravention on
any provision of this proclamation.

Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to prohibit or restrict the

distribution or delivery in the Territory (N.R.) of any newspaper published
within the Union of South Africa containing matter the publication of which
has been duly authorized within the Union.

224
Introduction
APPENDIX IV
Memorandum Concerning “The Northern News” a Weekly
Newspaper, which is to be published, and Printed
at Chingola and Distributed Throughout
the Territory

The proposed “Northern News” is to be an independent organ with its policy

the furtherance of the war effort and the maintenance of amicable relations
between all of the community.

The proprietors will be the Copperbelt Printers and Publishers, whose capital
is entirely owned by E. B Hovelmeier and J. C. Wykerd. The editor-in-chief will
be E.B. Hovelmeier who has had considerable journalistic and publishing
experience. J. C. Wykerd will act as business manger. Both these persons are
well known and have resided on the Copperbelt for some years. They are
therefore familiar with all aspects of life in this territory.

Pending the purchase of a larger press, it is proposed to publish a weekly 24

page issue in magazine style, with an approximate page size of 11” x7”. The
estimated circulation will be in the vicinity of 3,500. Based on the foregoing
figures it is calculated that the consumption of newsprint or mechanical super
calendered paper will be 1 ½ to 2 tons per month

This newspaper will carry general commercial and domestic advertising and
Government notices.

(Signed) Hovelmeier Wykerd

225
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX V
Letter of Government Printer to Chief Secretary

Confidential
30/9/42

The Hon. Chief Secretary,

Sir,

I am directed by the Financial Secretary to order 20 tons of paper

from South African – newsprint or mechanical supper calendered

[Link] information given to me is too meager for the order to be placed.

3. I have the honour to ask for the following information
(1). The weight per ream of paper
(2). The size of the full sheet, i.e. length or width in inches, untrimmed.
(3). The size of the machine on which the newspaper is to be printed.
(4). How many pages to be printed at one impression.
(5) Do you require 20 tons of paper cut to 11 x 7 inches.

[Link] size given, viz., 11x7 ins. Does not cut out of any of the unusual size of
paper without a large trim which means waste. 11 x 8 ½ ins. Is a normal size and
if ordered in Double Demy 22 ½ x 35ins. Could be taken over for “Mutende” in
case the 20 tons is not all used.
The Press in Zambia

5. I cannot answer para 2. Until I am informed of the number of

newspapers required weekly so that I can work out quantity of
paper required for each weekly publication. Is 11 x 7 the size of
one leaf or is this the size of the sheet as laid on the printing press?
6. From the manner in which this instruction has been given to me
I am of the opinion that someone is trying to do something with
a job about which they know very little, on which I could perhaps
be more helpful if I were admitted a little more into confidence.
I enclose a sheet of Double Demy as used for “Mutende” which
may assist you in explaining what is required.

I have the honour to be Sir

Your Obedient Servant,

B. Pullon
Government Printer.

226
Introduction
APPENDIX
Letter of Financial Secretary to Copperbelt Printers.

Confidential
[Link]. 1942

Messer Copperbelt Printers Ltd

Chingola

Gentlemen,

With reference to your order of 1 ½ to 2 tons of newsprint or substitute

paper which Government is endeavoring to obtain on your account I have
the honour to inform you that it will be necessary to guarantee the order to
the manufacturers for the duration of the War, and for two years thereafter
at the ruling Johannesburg prices. I should be glad to know whether you are
prepared to give guarantee.
I am to add that the South Africa paper control has not yet approved the
export.

I have the honour to be Gentlemen

Your Obedient Servant,

K.T
Financial Secretary

Appendices

227
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX VII
Letter of Hovelmeier to Financial Secretary

The Copperbelt Printers and Publishers

Telephone 85 Proprietors Price’s Blgs

P.O. Box 67 J.C. Wykerd Chingola
Tel. Add. “News” E.B. Hovelmeier N. Rhodesia
9th October 1942

The Financial Secretary,

Northern Rhodesia Government,
Lusaka

Dear Sir
In reply to you letter dated 5th instant, I wish to advise you that we are prepared
to guarantee acceptance of 1 ton of newsprint or substitute paper, per month,
for the duration of the war, and for two years thereafter, at ruling Johannesburg
prices. We have been forced to revise our estimate through a definite
commitment of the nature, and trust that you will not be inconvenienced in
any way by the reduction from the original figure of 1 ½ to 2 tons per month.

Yours faithfully

E. B. Hovelmeier
For the Copperbelt Printers and
publishers

228
Introduction
APPENDIX VIII
Letter of Director of Civil Supplies to Supplies
Representative in Johannesburg

7th October 1942

Dear Harold,

I confirm my telegrams Nos. 150 and 151 dated 6th and 7th respectively as
follows:-

“ No. 150. Urgent please use best endeavours obtain for Government account
twenty tons mechanical supper calendered printing paper or newsprint.

Immediate purchase if possible or guaranteed delivery two tons monthly. This

order quite apart from monthly contract arrangements for commercial paper
now being made between Sapulpa and Government. Telegragph or telephone
result your efforts Friday morning latest”.

“No 151. my 150 of 6th instant. Description of paper required should be

augmented by double demy 22 ½ by 35inches substance 69 grams per 500
– 38 and three-quarters lbs. Indent is addressed to Sapulpa from Government
Printer”.

2.I regret I am unable to give you further information as the purpose for
which the paper is required is strictly confidential and I know very little
about it. It is clear, however, that you are to do all you can to obtain the
paper for Government.

Yours sincerely

(Signed) H.K. Mackee

Director of Civil
Supplies

Supplies Representative,
Government of Northern Rhodesia
P.O. Box 321
Johannesburg

229
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX IX
Letter of Supplies Representative to
Controller of Paper, Pretoria

Copy:
Chief Secretary’s Office, Lusaka

To:
The Controller of Paper
Pretoria

13th October 1942.

Dear Sir,

Confirming out conversation over the telephone this morning when I informed
you that a telegram had been received from the Hon. The Financial Secretary
of Northern Rhodesia intimating that the 20 tons of supper calendered paper
is required by the Northern Rhodesia Government for the purpose of news
publication; consumption is estimated at 1 ½ to 2 tons monthly and the
present stock position is nil.

2.I also confirm that normally we obtain the bulk of our printing paper
requirements through Union Suppliers and very little from Southern
Rhodesia; this statement is confirmed by our trade statistics which, for
the year 1940, show that our total imports of printing paper amounted to
1815 pounds made up as follows:

Ex. Supplies in the Union of S. Africa 1,755 = 96.7%

Southern Rhodesia 44 = 2.4%
U.K direct 16 = .9%
1,815 100%

3.I am grateful to you for your decision to release 10 tons of this paper
for export to the Northern Rhodesia Government and an order for
this quantity has been placed with the South African Pulp and Paper
Industries Ltd., P.O Enstra, Via Springs.

Your Faithfully
F.H. Lowe
Supplies Representative

230
Introduction
APPENDIX X
Letter of Lowe to the Manger of South African
Pulp and Paper Industries Ltd.

The Manger
South African Pulp and Paper Industries Ltd.
P.O Box Enstra
Via Springs

12th October 1942

Dear Sir,

Confirming our conversation over the telephone this afternoon when

informed you that the controller of paper had agreed to release 10 tons of
supper calendered printing paper, double demy 22 ½ x 35 inches substance
69 grams per 500 –38 ¾ lbs

2.I shall be grateful if you will accept this intimation as a firm order

The Press in Zambia

for the supply of the above material which should be invoiced and
consigned to:

The Director of Civil Supplies,

Lusaka,
Northern Rhodesia

3The material is admissible into Northern Rhodesia under the authority of

general import license No. 22200

Your Faithfully

F. H. Lowe
Supplies Representative.

Copy to:
Director of Civil Supplies
Lusaka

231
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX XI
Letter of Hovelmeier to Postmaster

The Copperbelt Printers and Publishers

P.O Box 67
Chingola

The Post Master General

Livingstone

Dear Sir,
In view of the fact that we have received the permission of Government to
publish a weekly newspaper to be called “The Northern News” we shall be
pleased if you register same for transmission at newspaper rate and under the
conditions as laid down in the Post Office guide. We enclose the prescribed
fee, and submit the following particulars in connection with the publication:
to be printed and published at Chingola each Wednesday and to be circulated
throughout the territory. Price 4d, per copy.

Yours faithfully,

E. B Hovelmeier
for the Copperbelt printers and publishers
Proprietors “The Northern News”

232
Introduction
APPENDIX XII
Letter of Hovelmeier to Director of Civil Supplies

The Copperbelt Printers and Publishers,

24th October 1942

The Director of Civil Supplies,

Lusaka

Dear Sir

In reply to your telegram of the 26th we wish to apologies for our oversight
in failing to apply for exception as provided for in section 11 of Government
Notice No. 110 of 1942, and submit the following information in support
of our belated application.

On the 19th September, we interviewed the Governor and the Chief

Secretary in connection with our desire to commence a weekly newspaper
in the territory, and we were given to understand that they had no
objection to our proposal, and in fact were favourably disposed to the
project. Due to the manner in which the conversation was conducted we
were of the opinion that the Chief Secretary would advise the different
departments interested at the opportune time, and that therefore it
would not be necessary for us to proceed further in the matter. This was
the position as it existed when we applied to the Post Master General for
registration of the publication, and we can assure you that there was no
intention on our part of avoiding any of the formalities as set out in the
ordinance.

We trust that our explanation is satisfactory, and that, at your earliest

opportunity you will see your way clear to grant us exception in respect
of Clause A, Section 3, of the Government Notice No. 110 of 1942.

Your Faithfully

E. B Hovelmeier
for the Copperbelt
Printers and Publishers

233
Press in Zambia
APPENDIX 13

Letter of Director of Supplies Copperbelt Printers

31 October
1942

Gentlemen,

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 27th instant.

In view of the information contained therein your exception from the

provisions of Government Notice No. 110 of 1942 Section 3 (a), is thereby
granted. The Post Master general has been informed accordingly

I have the honour to be

Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,

Director of Civil Supplies

APPENDIX XIV

Letter of Director of Civil Supplies

to Post Master General

24th October
1942

Postmaster General,
Livingstone

In reply to your minute No. 60/652/41 of the 16th October addressed to

the honourable the Chief Secretary, I have to inform you that in exercise
of the powers vested in the Director of Civil supplies under Section 11 (1)
of Government notice number 110 of 1942., the Copperbelt Printers and
Publishers have been exempted from the provisions of Section 3 (a) of

234
Introduction
that notice.

irector
of Civil
Supplies

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240
Introduction

Appendices

APPENDIX XV

Resolution of the 1972 National Mass media Seminar

Committee A

1. Having heard the President statement in his address on mass

media and nation building in Zambia, this seminar records its
appreciation for convening this seminar but only regrets that it
was not held much earlier.
2. The seminar records its sincere thanks to his Excellency the
Presiden for his time and major contributions he has given to its
deliberations
3. As journalists, broadcasters and public relations officers we
recognize our responsibilities in nation builing. While accepting
that mistakes have been made by the mass media we believe
that these could be minimized if there was much greater co-
operation and coordination between the mass media and the
newsmakers. With this in mind we recommend:
(a) that press liason officer be appointed in each ministry,
government departments and parastatal bodies;
(b) that the news room be reinstalled at Zambia Broadcasting
services from Zambia News Ageny;
(c) the setting up of the national Press Council for the
identification and maintenance of high press standards;
(d) that a national council for training of journalists be
established.

4. we argue that more adequate facilities be given to the press to

cover international tour
5. we argue the Government to re-examin its priorities in the field
of mass media in order to maximize their effectiveness in nation
building.
6. we recommend that consideration be given to the suggestion
made that foeign newspapers and agencies should appoint
Zambian nations as their representatives here.

241
Press in Zambia
7. the seminar considers that it is desirable to form a national union
off journalists, broadcasters and public relations officers.
8. finally, we declare our loyalty to The President of the Republic
of Zambia and our desire to mobilize our resources in the best
interest of the nation as it moves forward the second republic. We
believe that this can be achieved by the exercise of self discipline
rather than by the introduction of censorship.

Committee B

“The Press in the propagation and implementation of Humanism”. It is resolved

that:

1. humanism and its achievements should be subject for the

regular discussion in the press, radio, telvevision and any other
mass media in Zambia
2. the ministry of development planning and national guidance
should make regular material available to all media in urban and
rural areas, that the quality of such material should be stimulation
and readable and conversely that all media undertake to make
space and time available to such material on a regular basis
3. all journalists should be coversant with the principles of
Humanism; in order to ensure this, all working journalists should
attend seminars on the subject within a stipulated time and that
all trainees should study Humanism as part of their course
4. similar seminars should be held annually to review developments
in the past year and the role played by the mass media and that
such seminars should fall at about the time Parliament is sitting
to allow for more representation from the country’s leadership
who would be in Lusaka during the period
5. all personnel manning the mass media should be patriotic and
dedecated Humanists. To ensure this, careful attention should be
given to recruitment of all personnel, expatriate and local. Full
attention should be given to current attitudes of all stuff, and all
attitudes contrary to the national interest must be changed
6. all mass media should present balanced material. In order to
achieve this, more emphasis should be given to local news,
followed by foreign news and features
7. mass media management should ensure that such balanced
coverage is given and that general interest in humanism is
stimulated by the Ministry of Development and National
Guidance by organizing competions on humanism throughout

242
Introduction
the country. Full coveraged of such activities should be given
on all mass media in the same way the metrication is being
covered.
8. an association of writers and arthurs be formed to encourage
serious and other articles on the subject of humanism.
9. as television falls behind, the other media in local coverage,
attention should be given by the Ministry of Inforamtion,
Broadcasting and tourism to promoting local material for this
media. More material on local culture, should be provided
10. special attention be given to the cinema which is usually outside
the control of usual authorities as most films are imported. Some
of the films for television should be made available to the mobile
film units in the rural [Link] Ministry of Development Planning
and National Guidance should be allowed time for advertising
their programs
11. the freedom of the press should be respected and maintained in
keeping with theprinciples of humanism
12. the committee supports Government policy that the mass media
is part and parcel of Zambia Society

Committee C
“news media as an instrument of psychological warefare”. This seminar
wishes to record its appreciation for the Presidents thought provoking
speech on the mass media as an instrument of psychological warfare;
noting the dangers and implications has put forward by the president
and also noting that Zambia is surrounded by hostile nations, this seminar
on mass media and national development;

(a) Pledges to take practical steps on helping the government to counter

act malicious propaganda aimed at Zambia both from within and
outside the country, and undertakes to instill a new awareness in the
people of Zambia of the dangers of this propaganda;
(b) Calls on Government to hold regular briefings with representativces
of the mass media to enable Zambia’s press to create this new
awareness;
(c) Notes with regret the present unsatisfactory condition of broadcasting
equipment which would enable the government to reach the mass
throughout the country, and urges government to take immediate
steps to remedy this situation;
(d) Notes with dismay the dominance of foreign oriented radio and
television programmes which pander to foreign tests and therefore,

243
Press in Zambia
calls upon government to gradually end the status call by providing
the necessary facilities for local production;
(e) Urges the government to establish an external braoadcasting station
within Zambia Broadcasting Serves to counter act effectiovely enemy
propaganda, and that in persuerance of this a special unit be created
within the ministry on Information Broadcsting and Tourism to man
the external broadcasting services;
(f ) Arges the government to consider seriously replacing local based
correspondents of foreign mass media with Zambia Joiurnalists,
while at the same time urging the mass media in Zambia to project
a favourable image of countries friendly to Zambia, and calls upon
the Zambian press to realize they are a fouth estate and other three
being the executive, judiciary and the lesgislative and, as such, should
uphold their intergrity and be contious of the responsibity which
these wings of society owe to the public.

APPENDIX XVI

Constitution of the Republic of Zambia

One Political Party

There shall be one and only one political party or organisation in Zambia,
namely, the United Independence Party (in this Constitution referred to as “the
Party”), the constitution thereof is annexed for information.

Nothing contained in this Constitution shall be so construed as to entitle

any person lawfully to form or attempt to form any political or organisation
other than the party, or to belong to, assemble or associate with, such political
party or organisation.

Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms

of the Individual

It is recognized and declared that every person has been and shall continue
to be entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, that
is to say, the right, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinions, color,
creed or sex, but subject to the limitations contained in Article 4 (the article on
one political party above) and in this Part, to each and all of the following:

(b) freedom of conscience, expression assembly and association; .

244
Introduction
.

Protection of Freedom of Expression

Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment
of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions without
interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference
(whether the communication be to the public generally or to any person or
class of persons) and freedom from interference with his correspondence.

Nothing contained in the in or done under the authority of any law shall
be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this article to the extent
that it is shown that the law in question makes provision-

(a) that is reasonably required in the interests of defence,

public safety, public order, public morality or public health;
or
(b) that is reasonably required for the purpose of protecting
the reputations, rights and freedoms of other persons or
the private lives of persons concerned in legal proceedings,
preventing the disclosure of information received in
confidence, maintaining the authority and independence
of the courts, regulating educational institutions in the
interests of persons receiving instruction therein, or
regulating the technical administration or the technical
operation of telephony, telegraphy, posts, wireless,
broadcasting or television; or
(c) that imposes restrictions upon public officers;

and except so far as that provision or, as the case may be, the thing done under
the authority thereof is shown not to be reasonably justifiably in a democratic
society.

APPENDIX XVII

Constitution of United National Independence Party

Membership – Obligations and Rights

Membership of the Party shall be voluntary and open to any Zambian citizen
who accept the objectives and rules of the Party.

245
Press in Zambia

A member of the Party shall have the following obligations and duties:

…….
(h) to refrain from criticising publicly the Party or any member thereof
in relation to its or his activities in the Party, but to report alleged
shortcomings to the appropriate committee to the Party to which
the reported member will be entitled to answer the allegation in
person…..

Party disciplinary Rules

All members of the Party are subject to these Rules and any member who
commits an offence against the Party is liable to disciplinary action as provided
in these Rules.

In these Rules “offence against the Party” includes –

(m) publishing or causing to be published, orally or in writing, any

matter which in the opinion of the Central committee or the

The Press in Zambia

National Council is an attack on the Party or an attack on a member

or official of the Party in relation to the discharge of his functions as a
member or official of the Party…

APPENDIX XVIII
Proposed Press Council of Zambia Bill

No – of – 198

Date of Assent

An Act to establish the Press Council of Zambia and to provide for a press
Association for and a code of conduct of journalists and other matters
incidental with the foregoing

- 198

246
Introduction
Enactment ENACTED by the Parliament of Zambia

PART I

PRELIMINARY
1. This Act may be cited as the Press Council of Zambia
Act, 198 - .
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires
– “the Press Council means the Press Council of
Zambia established by Section three; “the Party”
means the Unitedd National Independence Party;
“Journalists” shall include local or foreign reporter,
correspondent, photographer, creative artist,
editorial writer, for newspaper, radio, television
or any journal, or radio or television broadcaster,
publc relations personnel and any person whose
occupation, full tme or part time, is engaged with
Journalism, in Zambia Mission abroad.
Establishment
of the Press
Council
3. There is hereby established the Press Council
of Zambia which shall by that name be a body
corporate with perpetual succession and a common
seal and which shall be capable of suing and being
sued and, subject to the provisions of this Act, of
doing or performing such acts and things as a body
corporate may by law do or perform
Objects
4. the aims and objects of the Press Council shall be;

(i) guiding the mass media in fullfiling the

aspirations of the people of Zambia of
achieving Socialism

247
Press in Zambia
and the development of a Humanist State;
(ii) to act as the disciplinary body for
journalists;
(iii) to ensure the freedom of expression as
enshrined in the Constitution of Zambia is
not abused
(iv) to promote, maintain and improve the
character of Zambian mass media in
accordance with the highest professional
standards;
(v) to receive, consider and rectify complaints
from members of the public regarding
the conduct of the mass media or that of
journalists;
(vi) to examine breaches of journalists
professional ethics and code of conduct as
herein provided
(vii) to publish its findings or actions taken
regarding complaints or breaches of ethics
or code of conduct
(viii) to keep under review development likely
to affect the circulation and dissemination
of news or information to the public;
(ix) to make representations to the Party, the
Government or other organisations on
matters of interest to the Press Council
(x) to publish periodical reports on its
activities
(xi) to do all other things that are in conformity
with the aims, objectives, principles and
spirit of this Act.
Membership
Of the Press
Council
5. (1) The Press Council shall consist of the
following members:
a. the Chairman of Elections,Publicity and Strategy,
Sub-Committee of the Central Committee of
the Party, as Chairman;
b. one representative from the Ministry of Legal
Affairs and the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting;

248
Introduction
c. six public figures appointed by the
Central Committee, two of whom shall be
representatives of journalists
d. two representatives of publishing campanies

(2) The Press Council shall meet at time and place

to be fixed by the Chairman.
(3) The Press Council shall make its own rules
regarding the conduct of its meetings.

PART III
CODE OF CONDUCT

6. The Press Council shall ensure that every journalist

i. Propagate the Philosophy of Humanism and
communicate it correctly through mass media and
work as vanguard for the spread of humanist and
socialist ideals and other policies of the Party and
Government
ii. Report accurately and objectively on all matters;
[Link] by fair means and by honest methods
materials and information for use in mass media;
[Link] in public and in private in a manner that
would not bring mass media into ridicule or
disrepute;
v. Keep secret all confidential information made
available to him or to the mass media
[Link] character assassination and not to act as
an agent for the spread of gossip or rumour or
information likely to cause tribal, religious or
political disunity;
vii. Set an example of loyalty and devotion
to duty by observing high standards of good
manneriness and behaviour; punctuality at all times,
sobriety, decent dress, courtesy, tolerance;
viii. Observe the individual’s right to privacy;
[Link] taking advantage of the ignorance of persons;
organisations or group of people;
x. Do something in news or pictures that would cause
pain, embarrassment of humiliation to people,
bereaved or distressed persons;
[Link] fair to all persons in reports and pictures

249
Press in Zambia
xii. Not to accept bribes or favours in return for
publishing in mass media stories, features, pictures
or reports;
xiii. Recognize in particular and abide by the
laws Of libel, content of court, and in general all
other laws;
xiv. Avoid being influenced in the dissemination
of news by religious, tribal or ethnic or any other
bias;
xv. Observe restrictions on reporting certain
matters as specified by Party and Government or
any organisation
xvi. Faithfully interpret, report and comment
on major Party and Government pronouncements
in a manner which would be easily understood by
members of the public without deliberately causing
confusion or misunderstanding;
xvii. Educate the masses to guard against such
evils to society of Zambian morals and cultures.

PART IV
PENALTIES

7. 1. The Press Council is hereby empowered

to impose or recommend the imposition to
appropriate authorities of penalties contained in
section nine and section ten.

Provided that the Press Council may itself impose

any other punishment it may at its own discretion
deem fit depending on the nature of the breach.

2. Where a journalist is found to have

misconducted himself in the course of duty he shall
be warned or reprimanded orally by letter by the
Press Council for a minor offence, but for serious
offences the Press Council may require that the
offending journalist appear before it or be relieved
of his employment or refer the matter to court.

3. Newspapers, magazines, journals, radio,

250
Introduction
television or any journalist publishing information
likely to incite, cause alarm or despondency shall
be reprimanded by the Press Council which may
also recommend to the Party and Government that
Such organisation or publication be banned, or
person responsible for the publication be relieved
of his post or that prosecution of either or both the
organisation or publication and or personnel be
instituted.

4. If a publication or organisation publishes

information given to it or to a member of its staff in
confidence by the Party or Government or any other
person such a publication or organisation and the
person responsible shall have disciplinary action
taken against it or him in a manner considered
appropriate by the Press Council

5. if in the opinion of the Press Council a

publication, radio or television or its staff have
published an unfair report, the writer and the
publication or organisation shall be censured and
required to withdraw the report and apologise.

6. if in the estimation of the Press Council

a journalist or newspaper, magazine, periodical,
television or radio station has acted as a source of
propaganda for persons or organisation hostile to
the Party and Government for purpose of achieving
tribal, religious, political or ethnic ends, such a
journalist, newspaper, magazine, journal, television
or radio station, as the case may be shall be censured,
warned and persons responsible recommended for
dismissal from their posts

7. if an individual or organisation publishes

any information that the Press Council considers
malicious or false, such individual or organisation
shall be publicly condemned or recommended for
prosecution

8. The press Council shall take disciplinary

251
Press in Zambia
action notwithstanding that the Disciplinary
Committee of the Press Association has not taken
any action or is considering or has decided on the
matter

8. (1) The Press Council shall draw its funds from

the Government, contributions and donations.

(2) Organisations or individuals may contribute

towards the Press Councils Funds.

Appendices

(3) All monies and property belonging to the

Press Council shall be under the Control of
the Press Council and shall be used solely
for the purposes and benefit of the Press
Council
(4) The Press Council may invest in such
manner as it shall think any monies not
immediately required for the performance
of its functions.

PART VI
9. (1) There is hereby established the Press
Association of Zambia whose Constitution is
annexed hereto.

(2)The Constitution of the Press Association may

be amended by the Annual General Meeting of
the Press Association and any amendments shall
become effective if approved by the Press Council.

TRAINING

10. (1) The Press Council shall gather information

concerning training facilities in journalism available
in Zambia and elsewhere and advise heads of mass
media in placing personnel for training.

252
Introduction

(2)Where any person or organisation is offered

training facilities in journalism abroad directly
and not through the Party and Government, the
recipient of such offer shall be under obligation
to seek clearance from the Press Council before
accepting such offer.

(3) In order to accelerate Zambianisation,

the Press Council shall be at liberty
to discuss with representatives of
organisations employing journalists on
Zambianisation programmes.

The Press in Zambia

Giving of other
Laws
11. Nothing in this Act shall prejudice or affect the
provisions of an Act or rules made there under
regarding the publication, circulation, management
or any other matter pertaining to newspapers,
journals, radio, television or any activity of
journalists.

Rules
12. The press Council may make rules to facilitate the
implementation of this Act

253
Press in Zambia
INDEX

Administration, the, 140,141,147,161, African News Distributors,

55
181,189,190,196,197 African Times,
6,41,63,66,183
adversarial role of the press/newspaper(s) African Weeklt, The 55
103,181 Agrafa “Dr.” 130
advertising, advertisement(s) advertiser(s) A g r i c u l t u r e ,
47,52,73,118,114
advertising space, advertising 145,175
manager(s), advertising agent(s) advertise Ainslie, Rosalynde
3,76,192
adversied,19,28, 46,50,55,74 Amalgamate,
amalgamation 23,29
83,130,131,133,165,179,184,187 31.81
191,193,196 American(s)
yankee, 29, 32, 34, 35
Advocacy Journalism 63 80,115
East(ern) Bloc 21 America, United States of
U.S.A 11
Africa, 1,2,3,4,5,7,9,17,29,71,79 41,47,184,195
79,85,121,188,192,197 Angola 7,9
African advancement 59,65 Anglican Council
of Zambia 130
African(s) Blacks, Black people, native(s) Anglican priest(s) 130
Black Zambia(s) 6,11,14,15 Aparthied 144
16,21,22,23,26,27,29,30,31 A p o l o g y ,
apologies(d), 127 128
41,43,44,46,47,49,51,57,59 Archaeologist 9
60,62,66,68,69,74,76,77,79 Arab(s) 9,10
80,81,84,85,92,94,111,179 Argus Company Argus
Group 37, 40
180,181,182,183,184,193 69, 82,83,84,185
African Eagle, The Eagle 6,46,55 Article(s) 51,
52,98,118,125,134
56,57,60,61,182,183,192 Astrologer 130
African government(s) 3,4,16,73,80 Astor, David
71,108,111,169,183
81,82,83,84,185 192
African Life, 6, 66, 68, 68,71,73,179 Australia 184
180,183,184,191

254
Introduction
African Mail, Central African Mail B
Zambia Mail, Zambia Daily Mail Bahati 152,156
6,40,41,69,72,73,74,75,85,91 Balance of
payments 148,162
108,111,112,113,114,115,119 Baldwin Lord 80,81
134,139,155,160,161,162,165 Baldwin, Stanley 80
166,167,169,170,171,183,185 Balfour, Lord 80
187,190,191,193,195 Ban (newspaper)
banned, banning 89
African Mail Ltd., 71 98,99,124,166,1
67,185,186
African Methodist Episcopal church 191,197
129 Banda Dingiswayo, 143

African Nationalist(s) nationalistic forces Banda Kamuzu 3,73

African nationalist demands African Banda Mann
171
Nationalism 4,14,15,57,62 Banda John 138
63,71,73,76,193 Banda William 136
African National Congress, ANC, 14 Bangweulu lake 9
17,56,57,65,66,68,76,81,88 Bantu 29
94,151 Barotseland
Barotse 73,88
African Newspaper 53,55,61,63 Bemba 51,55,61,182
182,183 Bible 121
African Press, African newspaper(s) Black Black(s),Black Zambian(s)
Press Black newspaper(s) 62,63,65 African(s) native(s),
indigenous
68,69,71,75,77,193,196 p e o p l e
6,9,11,14,15,21,23,26,27
31,41,433,44,46,47,49,51,52 C a t h o l i c
newspaper 80
53,57,59,62,65,66,68,69,74 Censor, Censored
censorship suppressed
76,77,79,80,84,85,92,94 (news) news suppression
press
179,180,181,182,184,193 c e n s o r s h i p
25,26,92,114,135,136
Black Government 3,4,15,16,81,82 158,194,199
83,84 Censorship
Board 102
Black minerworkers Black miners 11,88 Central Africa 65,68

255
Press in Zambia
Black Power Government 52 Central African
Mail African Mail,
Black newspaper(s0 Black press African Zambia/Daily mail,
6,40,41,69
Press newspaper(s) 62,63,68,69 71,72,73,74,75,82,85,91,1
08
71,75,77,182,183,193,196 111,112,113,114,116,134
,139
Blasphemy 79
155,160,161,162,163,165,
Botswana (Bechuanaland) 7 167,169,170,171
,183,185,187
Boycott boycotting 56,57,120,155 190,191,193,195
Bradley K.G 24 Central African Post the
Post 6,40
Britain 15,16,21,23,44,46,62,85 43,44,46,63,83,181
101,102,121,184 Central Intelligence
Agency CIA 115
British Government imperial Gov. Central-Mining-Rand-Mines
Group 83
British administration 4,5 Centre Spread 72
10,14,15,44,69 Chambeshi river 9
British Parliament 10 Cha Cha Cha 57
British press 80 Chainama 101
British South Africa Company BSA Chigaga Gibson 163
Company Chartered company 10 Chapman Geof 104
11,15,22,25,26 changufu Lewis
111,112,160
Broadcast 75,178,179 Chafungwa
Saviour 139
Broadcast(s) 26,118 Chartered Company
British South Africa
Brook Norris Stopford 41 Company BSA Company
10 11
Broken Hill Kabwe 9,43 15,22,25,26
Bulawayo Chronicle 27 Chibuku 84
Burton Frank 63,66 Chifunda J.C
126
Burton Mrs L, 73,77 Chigodo Tim
139
Busia Kofi 103 Chikwanda Alexander
162

256
Introduction
Business(es) businessman businessmen Chilanga cement factory
56
11,17,19 Chililabombwe 135,156
Child children
46,98,120,175,181
C 182
Cairo 11 Chiluwe Robert 123
Cambridge School certificate 15 Chemist 19
Campaign(s) 123 165 168 181 Chingola Nchanga 27 29
32 135
Canada 184 169
Cape Town 11 Chipata Fort
Jameson 10
Capitalism Capitalist(s) 17,104,145 Chipimo Elias
122,123,126,128,170
186,188 Chirwa Philip 170
caption(s) Chisala Sinoia
165
Cartoon(s) cartoon strip(s) cartoon Chitambo 10
Editorial(s) 52,72,119 Chit Chat
column(s) 29,72
Caver Ronald 130 Chona Mainza
57,68,89,123,128
Catholic(s) Roman Catholic(s), Roman Christian(s) Christianity
Christian faith
Catholic Church, Catholic Church 77 Christian
doctrine Christian religion
79,184,188 122,126,131,188
catholic Episcopal conference catholic Christian church Christian
churches
bishop, 80,119

the press in Zambia

177,187,188 communication
communicate 1,16
Christian newspaper(s) Christian paper(s) Communication Media,
mass media
Church press, church (owned) newspaper(s) mass medium, media
of communication
6,128,131,188,189,192 news media
1,3,17,49,98,104,105

257
Press in Zambia
Church, Churches, church leader(s) 28 124,136,140,148,152,156
,186
117,121,124,126,128,129,130 193,197
131,175,184,187,188 Commonwealth
Summit 145
Church press, church newspaper(s) Concession(s)
concession hunters 10
Christian newspaper, Christian 11
Paper(s) 6,128,131,188,192 Congo river 37
Circulation, circulate, circulations circulated Conservation(s) Party (in
Britain) 46
24,27,28,34,51,55,60 Consolidation,
of newspaper press
62,71,74,75,80,108,133,182 82,185
City Radio Limited 173 C o n s t i t u t i o n ,
constitutional power(s)
Civilized, civilize, civilization 22,76 constitutional right(s)
constitutional
Classless society 120 147 Amendment Bill
1,2,15,76,105
Coalition government 15,83 107,121,122,151
,154,157,186
Coillard Frnacois 10 187 198
Collective editorials 126 Content(s) of newspapers
85,92,139
Colonial government(s) colonial administration 150,161,167,196
(s) 4,32,46,52,181,192 Contempt of Parliament
153,156,157
Colonial Office 10,11,15,25,31 166
Colonial, colonial rule, colonial era Controversial Matter(s)
controversy
Colonial times, colonial days, colonial 56,122,114
Period, colonialist(s) 4,5,6,9,16 Conveyor belt, transmission belt
134 140
51,120,196 Copperbelt,
Coppermines, copper
Colony, Colonies 22,23 mining, copper, copper
deposits
Colour bar, racial segregation, racial 7,9,11,14,16,27,
28,29,30,53,66,84,
Problem, racial discrimination, racialism 88,118,135,144,175,181
Racism, race, racist stance(policy0 Copperbelt Times

258
Introduction
27,28,32,37
Racist sentiments, racial tension, racial Copperbelt Printers and
Publishers 36,37
Bias, racial approach, racial group Copper Price9s0 132
Racial conflict, race relations, racially Correspondent(s)
52,55,56,71,77
Divided [Link].[Link] Corrupt, corruption, corrupt
leaders 120
27,31,46,59,63,65,76,80,84,88 121,125,146,163
89,144,181,182,185 Cour t(s),cour t
reporting 74,105,157
Column(s), columnist(s) column 170
Writer(s) 29,46,72,73,119,127
173 Coup(s),coup plot(s),
coup plotter(s)
Comment(s), commentary, commentaries topple government(s)
122,123,128
Editorial(s), editorial comment(s), editorial- 129,187
izing, editorialized 6,41,43,44 C o v e r a g e
71,72,114,128,135,136
45,52,57,60,65,72,73,79,80 148,155,160
84,85,88,93,94,99,102,103,111 C r e d i b i l i t y ,
75,123,139,196
112,113,114,115,116,119,120 Criminal(s) crime 81, 138
122,124,125,126,129,130,135 Criticism, criticized criticizing,
critical
141,147,148,151,154,155,156 critical role, critical stance,
critics
157,158,160,163,167,169 51,55,65,73,80,85,88,94,9
7
175,176,177,181,185,186 103,104,107,112,114,116
,117
188,190,191,196 119,120,122,126,128,129
,131
Common man 17,114,147 139,140,141,143,145,147
,152
Compromise, compromised, 1,79 155,157,158,159,160,161
,162
Communism, communist (s) 17,104
163,165,167,188,189,190

Index

259
Press in Zambia
193,196,197,199 economic slump,
16,17,43,117
Cushion Trust 71 122,131,141,147,169,170
,175
191
D Economic
planning, economic
Dagos,29 future 146,164
Daily (newspaper), dailies 32,75,82 Ecumenical newspaper(s)
188
84,114,134,177 Editor, editor-in-chief,
editors
Daily Mirror, 63 e d i t o r s h i p
3,26,30,41,51,52,61,71
Daka Chao 139 73,74,79,80,89,94,97,105,
108,119
Daka L.K. 126 127,135,136,139
,154,158,150
Dar-es-Salaam,16 171,175,178,179
,181,194,185
Decentralization 145
186,190,191,193,196,198
Declaration of Human Rights 1,122 editorial policy,
editorial policies
Defamation 195 editorial stand, policy,
paper’s
Defence , defend 1,105,151 policy 39,40,43,
46,52,56,57,62,73
Democracy, democratic rights, democratic 75,91,114,116,117,196
government, democracies, democratic Editorial(s), editorial
comment,
country, democratic society demo- commentaries,
commentary editorial
cratic process, democratic freedom i z i n g
editorialized 6,41,43,44,45
1,4,44,85,97,[Link] 52,57,60,65,66,7
2,73,79,80,85
132,138,146,150,154,158,167 88,93,94,99,102,103,111,
112
189,194,196,197,198,199,200 113,114,115,116,119,120
,122
Demonstrate, demonstrated demonstration

260
Introduction
124,125,126,130,135,141
89,114,116,163 147,148,151,154,155,156
,157
Denny M. S.R 52 158,160,162,163,167,169
,175
Deport, deported 89,103 176,177,181,184,185,186
,188
Detain, detained, detaining 68,118 190,191,196
128,129 Editorialized headlines
79
Development, develop, development pro- Educate (role of the
press),education
gramme(s) 1,3,15,22,114,119
educated,1,15,47,57,117,130
128,145,150 Egypt 11
Diatribe(s) 66,85 E l e c t i o n ( s )
15,18,120,123,132,141,
Dictator(s), dictate, dictatorship 120 143,144,155,187
128,154,168 Electronic media
104
Dissident(s), dissident newspaper 187 Ellis Wilfred F.P 30 31
196 Emergency
powers control
Distribution, distribute (newspaper), cir- regulation No. 110,
Government
culate, circulation 24,27,28,34,51 Notice No. 110, 34,37
55,60,62,71,74,75,80,108,133 Emeralds 146,148
182 England, Britain
15,16,21,23,44
Doe Master Sergeant 123 46,62,65,85,101,102,120,
121
Dominion, dominion status 23 184
Drum, 49 E n g l i s h ,
Englishman, Englishmen
Dullforce William 112,114,115 29,49,51,55,61,77,182,18
3
Dumont Professor Rene 145 Entertain (role
of the press) enterta-
Dutch 29 inment 47
E t h i c s
(journalist), ethics of journali-
E sm journalism

261
Press in Zambia
ethics 97,103,104,165
Europe 11,99
East, Eastern Block countries 165 E u r o p e a n ( s )
29,31,44,47,53,60,83,88
East Africa, East African 71,91,130 83,88
Ears (of newspaper)19
Economic(s), economy, economic crisis European newspaper(s),
European

The press in Zambia

Paper(s), European press, White news- 189,190,191,193,194,196

Paper(s), White press 24,46,51,57 198
63,69,71,73,75,77,79,83,84 Fu n d a m e n t a l
rights, fundamental
181,182,183,184,193 freedom(s) 105
Evelyn Hone (Governor)
Evelyn Hone College 124
Executive Council 10
G
Exploitation 11,17,30 Garvey Marcus
52
Explorer 10 Gaunt John 44
Ghana Gold
Coast 4,71,88,97,103
Githii George
129
F Goss printing
machine 170
Faith healer(s), faith healing spiritual Gospel 117
healing 129 130 Gossip 19,29,52
Farmer’s page, farmers column, farm Government(s)
2,4,5,22,23,24,25
farming 22,47,73 26,27,29,30,32,34,35,36,4
1
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 42,43,46,47,49,50,51,52,5
3
Federal Government the Federation
55,60,61,65,81,84,89,181
Federation 14,15,23,29,39 182,183,192,194,198
40,41,43,56,57,63,62,65,66 Government
gazette(s) 4,112,191

262
Introduction
71,73,74,75,77,80,183 G o v e r n m e n t
newspaper(s) gov.
Federalists 23 o w n e d
newspaper/press gov.
Fedral Parliament 43 organ, official
press, official public-
Fedral White Paper 23,56 ation government
ownership of the
Feira Luangwa 7,9 p r e s s /
newspaper9s) 3,4,5,6,47,112
Film and Telvision Co-operative Ltd. 114,115,131,140
,169,185,187
FITECO 177 178 192,193
First permanent Building Society 63 Government
policy, official
66,183 government
thinking 60,66,112
First World War, World war one (1) Government Printer 35
war 26 51 Gratis, free
distribution, circulation
Foreign exchange, forex 148,176 50,51,182
178,196 Greeley Horace 41
Foreign interests, foreign company, 104 Gross National Product
GNP145
108 Guest editorial
writer(s), guest
Foreign journalist(s) 103,104 editorials 119
Foreign ownership of newspaper(s) (press) Gwembe Valley 7
foreign-owned (newspaper press)
foreign-controlled 2,3,94,97,193 H
Fourth Estate 4 Hachten William A 2,3
Fort Jamson Chipata 10 Hugins Gaodfrey 23
Founders Building Society 66 Hall Richard
2,3,6,52,71,74,85
Free, freedom 2,92,150,158,167 88,89,91,92,93,94,97,108,
183
Free circulation, given gratis, free dis 185
tribution 50,51,182 Hangaala, Edwin
Smokey 176
Free society 158 Harare, Salisbury
14,29,43,53,55
Freedom of expression, free exchange of 84,92

263
Press in Zambia
Ideas, freedom of speech 1,105,111 Headline(s),
headlined 68,135,148
128,147,154,156,157,186,196 166,167,173,179
freedom of the press, free press 2,3 H e a l t h
47,49,52,105,181
4,27,46,82,85,104,114,116 Heinrich Max 84
126,133,134,138,140,141,150 Heinrich Syndicate 92
157,158,159,167,168,186,187 Hennessy John 82

Index
High court of Zambia, high court J
Judge 153,170,199
History, historian(s), historical back- Jakande Lateef
3
ground, African history, history of Jaycess, Lusaka Jaycees
147
the press/newspaper 1,4,5,6 Jesus Christ 122
47,65,80,83,102,104,116,123 Jew(s) 29 122
135,170,171,177,187,191,192 Jiheje “Dr.” 130
193 195,200 Johannesburg
35 36
Hobson Stan 39 Jones Creech 46
House of Lords 80 Journalism,
journalism profession
House, Parliament, National Assembly, 4,19,41,79,81,85,99,111,1
24,138
15,18,94,108,124,125,133,138 Journalism course 138
139,150,151,152,153,154,155 Journalism ethics, ethics
of Journa-
156,157,159,166,167,169 lism, journalistic ethics
97,103,104
190,191,198 jornalist(s),
newspaperman newspa-
Hovelmeier E.B 2732,34,35,36 permen, newsman
newsmen reporter
Humanism, philosophy of Humanism (s) pressman pressmen
2,3,41,49,50
Humanist State 16,17,97,104 56,79,85,96,97,9
8,104,124,124
126,186,195 131,134,135,136
,138,139,150
Human interest stories 179 154,157,158,166

264
Introduction
,170,171,172
173,178,179,184
,186,187,188
I 189,190,191,192
,193,193,195,197
198,199,200
Idea(s0 1,105,134,138 Judas Iscariot
143
Idealism 111
Immorality 114 K
Independence, political freedom political Kabamba Noah 170
emancipation, independence celebration Kabwata 72
14,16,17,31,57,71,75,76 Kabwe Broken Hill 9,43
77,80,82,104,105,107,111,132 Kachinga Komani 166
171 191
141,144,146,167,180,193 Kafue (town) 152
196 Kafue (river) 7,9
Independent Africa 1,4 Kalambo falls 9
Independent (editorial) policy, independent Kalomo 10
newspaper, independent paper Kalulushi 135
independent journal, independent press Kamana Dunstan
94,97,98,102,151
4,28,34,53,56,60,71,77,91,116 185,190
126,160,172,180,188,192 Kamanga Reuben 91
inform (role of press), information Kamwala 143
2,25,47,55,71,104,105,138 Kanyamagate 162
140,167,181,186,197 K angaroo
court(s) 165
international Airport Lusaka International Kapelembi Armold
134,135
airport 16,147,165 Kapiri Mposhi
16
International Press Institute IPI 2 Kapoche 159
Interpretative reporting, interpretative Kapwepwe Simon
17,151,186,187
Journalism, reporting interpretatively Kariba lake 7
80,126,195 Kasama 74
interview(s) 6,73,128 Katnaga Shaba
11
inverted pyramid (style of news reporting) Kasama 74
170 Katombora 21
Investigative reporting investigative 177 Kaunda, Kenneth David

265
Press in Zambia
KK 14,15
Italian(s) Italy 16,89,91 18,57,66,68,69,73,79,80,8
3
Itezhi Tezhi dam 9 85,88,91,97,102,
104,108,111
Ivory 9 113,115,120,122
,123,126,128

The Press in Zambia

139,141,146,150,160,161,166 40,46,181,184,195
171,186,187,191 Livingstaone Dr. David
10
Kawamba Chad 148 Livingstone
Pineer 19
Kayope Valantine 152,153,156 Lonchner Concession 10
Kelvin Calling column 73 London 21
24,29,31,40,43,46,68
Kenya 3,71
69,83,89,92,111,165
Kenyan Goverment 129 London Press 80
Kibaki Mwai 4 London Observer 71
Kitwe Nkana 11,84,89,121,134,135 London Rhodesia Mining
and land
171 company
Lo n r h o
83,84,91,92
94,97,98,103,10
8,139,185,193
L Lowe F.H.36
L o z i
51,55,61,182
Labour Government (in Britain) 22,85 Luanshya 11,51,92
Labour Party (of Northern Rhodesia) 34 Luapula Province16
Land 11,17 Luangwa river,
Luangwa valley 7,9
Language(s) 51,61,62 Luangwa Feira
74
Law the Law(s) 15,47,105,124,138 Luba Empire 9
144,150,151,152,181,185,194 Lubinda Edward 170
195 Lumina 162
Law and order 27 Lulu Texon D

266
Introduction
126
Layout 52 Lunda Empire 9
Leader the 77,79,80,117,184 Lundazi 155
Leadership Code 17,145 Lusaka 9,16,28,36,41,55,5
6,61,63
Lead Story, lead stories lead(s) 126 71,72,77,91,102,104,120
Leads Hugh 92 124,126,128,136,147,166
,171
Legislative Council Legco 10,14,15 177,179,186
25,31,32,34,37,40,45,46,53 L u s a k a
international Airport, Intern-
61,79,82 ational Airport
16,147,165
Letter(s) to the editor 29,30,39,49,50 Lusaka Jaycees
147
52,56,72,91,114,116,119,123 Lusaka Press
Club 150
126,166,182
Lewanika Paramount Chief 10,73
Lewis D.J.112 M
Liberal view of press freedom, liberation MacDonald Alexander
80
Style of press freedom, libertarian(s) Mackenzie F 28
3,27,46,185 Mackee H.K 35
Libel, Libel suit(s) 170 Mafinga Hills 7
Liberia 123 Magazine(s) 5,
66
Liberty freedom free 2,92,150,158 Majority government, majority
rule 76
167 Makwaya Moses
55,61
Liso Edward 88 Malawi (Nyasaland)
3,7,14,15,73
Litana Bob 136 Malwa Innocent 119
Literacy rate of literacy Manda Framcis N 114
“Little” Mirror, National Mirror 177 118 Mansa 16
119,120,121,122,123,124,125 Mass media mass
medium media of
126,127,128,129,130,131,132 communication media,
news media
133,187,188,189,195,196 1,3,17,49,98,104,105,124,
136

267
Press in Zambia
Livingston 7,11,19,21,22,24,26,29 140,148,152,156,186,193
,197
162,165,171 Mass media
seminar 104
Livingstone Mail the, The Mail Mass Communication
mass commu-
22,23,24,25,26,27,28,31,32 n i c a t o r s
49,182,198

Index
Msongo, Cosmas 169 Multi-racil
society, multi-racialism
Masiye Andrea 177 muiltiracialism,
muilti comminty
Masthead 177 60,65,80
Master plan 15 Multimedia
Zambia, multimedia
Matanda Francis 152
171,121,128,130,188
Matoka Peter 108,143 Musuka Otema
154
Mau,Mau 69 Musukuma John
139,152,153,156
Mazruii Ali 4,5 190
Mbuzi Josiyas 136 Mukuma 178
Media, mass media,news media, mass M u t e n d e
6,26,46,47,49,50,51,52
Medium, media of communication 53,57,60,62,181,182,183,
192
3,17,49,98,104,105,124,136 M w a a n g a
Vernon 6,103,108
140,148,152,153,156,197 Mwanakatwe John
142,147,163
Michelo Job 68,69 Mwanashiku
Luke 47
Milner Aaron 114,115,155,167 Mwangilwa Goodwin
121
Milingo Archbishop 129,130 M w a n z a
Clement 166
Mineral rights, mineral concession(s), 10 Mwila Inia G
112,136,148,155

268
Introduction
11 156,169
mining companies, mine(s), mining, miners Mwila Marnford 165
mineworker(s) 11,17,28,41,47 Mwinilunga 74
Mirror (role of the press) 194,199
Mirror, National, “Little” Mirror, N
117,118,119,120,122,123 Nabulayto, Robinson
151,153,154
124,125,126,127,128,129,130 166,167
131,132,133,187,188,189,195 Nairobi 1
196 Nameplate
55
Missioner, missionaries 10,15 Namibia, South
West Africa 7
Mlenga Kelvin 3,6,72,73,111,112 National Archives of
Zambia 28,177
Moffat 79 N a t i o n a l
Assembly, Parliament,
Monarch British 10 House 15,18,94,
108,124,125,133,
Monckton Commission 57 139,150,151,152
Monze 179 N a t i o n a l
newspaper(s), national
Moore Leopold Frank 19,25,40,43 press 5,32,77,82,117
181,193 National Progress Party
NPP 81
Morality, morals, moral life, 99,102 National Council for
scientific
105,121,134,185 research 166
Mosi-O-Tunya, Victoria Falls 7,9,10 National Commercial
Bank 144
Mazambique 7,16 National Mirror,
mirror, “Little”
Mpika 154 M i r r o r ,
117,118,119,120,121,122,
Mtepuka Elias 63,66,183 123,124,125,126,129,130
,131,132
Mtine Tom 92
133,187,188,195,196
Mubita Prince 88 National, African
nationalism, nati-
Mudenda Mrs. 162 onalist demands,
nationalist 14,40,43

269
Press in Zambia
Mudenda Elijah 162
57,62,63,71,73,76,84,184
Mufurila 11 Native9s0,
Black(s), African(s) indi-
Mukupo Titus 4,5,72,73,112 genous people,
Black Zambian(s) 6,9
Mulenga Humphrey 134,135,136 11,14,15,16,21,22,23,26,2
7,29,30,31
Mulenga Sefelino 156 41,43,44,46,47,4
9,51,52,53
Mulungushi Hall 128 80,81,84,85,92,9
4,179,180,181
Mulungushi (economic) reforms 17 182,183,193
Multi-lingral newspaper(s), multi-language 57,59,62,66,68,68,74,76,7
7,79
newspaper(s) multi-language papers Native policy
29,30,31
51,182,183 N c h a n g a ,
Chingola 27,29,32,135
Ndola 16,27,29,30,56,66,85 Newsworthy
136
89,91,92,126,135,136,178 New Zealand, New Zealander
103,184
Neo-colonialism 91 Nigeria, Nigerian
3,71
News, newstory, newsstories 2,6,19,21 Nimieiry Jaafar 129
26,27,28,36,40,47,49,50,51,52 Nkana, Kitwe
11,84,89,121,134,135
55,56,60,66,68,71,72,79,80,96 171
98,103,104,107,111,117,118,119 Nkoma Francis 128
126,134,135,136,138,139,140 Nkonde D.M 166
141,147,148,154,160,161,166 Nkonde Patrick 166
167,171,173,177,182,186,188 Nkumbula, Harry
Mwanga, 14,17,57
189,190,195,197,198 62,65,120,121,1
23,126,187
Newsgathering 183 N k ru m a h ,
Kwame 88,97
News item(s) 6,69,167,178 Nk wanazi
Richard 178
Newshole, new column(s) 19,28,71 Nordenstreng Kaarle 1
News peg(s) 6,184 Nor th-Eastern

270
Introduction
Rhodesia10
Ews event 195 North –Western
Rhodesia 9,10,19
News Play 6 N o r t h e r n
Rhodesia the North, Zamb-
News picture(s) 72 i a ,
10,14,15,16,17,18,22,23,
Newsprint 34,35,36,37,133,169,170 24,26,27,28,29,3
0,31,32,34,36,40,41
175,176,178,196 43,44,49,51,55,57,62,63,6
5,66
news media, mass media, mass medium 69,71,72,73,75,76,77,80,8
2,84
media of communication 1,3,17,49 89,94,99,101,107,116,11
7,119
98,104,105,124,136,140,148,152 122,124,127,129,130,131
,133
156,186,193,197 136,138,139,144,145,146
,154
news sources, sources of news 26,166 156,157,158,167,170,180
,181
191 183,185,187,188
,189,191,192
News treatment 6 193,195,200
Newspaper(s), press 1,2,3,4,5,6,19 Northern Rhodesian
Advertiser
24,26,27,28,32,34,35,39,44 the Advertiser
6,27,28,30,31,32,40
46,47,49,50,51,55,56,57,60,62 46,181
68,71,76,80,81,82,83,84,85,88 Northern Rhodesia Advertiser
Limited 28
96,97,98,103,103,108,118,124 Northern Rhodesia
Government
126,131,134,134,136,138,139,140 the Government
22,25,31,34,36
148,150,152,153,154,155,156 41,44,53,62,74,182
157,158,166,167,168,173,178 Northern Ireland 188
180,181,183,184,185,186,187 Northern News, The,
Times of
188,189,191,192,193,194 Zambia, the Times
6,27,28,32,34,36,
196,197,198,199,200 37,39,40,41,46,7

271
Press in Zambia
5,76,82,83,84,85,91
Newspaper management 193
92,93,94,96,98,99 103,105,108
Newspaperman, newspapermen, newsman 111,134,135,136,138,139
,140
Newsmen, journalist(s), pressman, pressmen 141,142,143,144
,146,150,151
Reporter(s) 2,3,41,49,50,56,79,85,89,96 152,153,154,155,156,157
,159
97,104,124,125,134,136,138,139,150 154 167,171,176,181,184,185
,186
134,135,136,138,139,150,154 187,189,190,191,195
157,158,166,170,171,172,173 Norway 133
179,184,186,188,189,190,191 Nsima 145
192,193,195,197,198,200 Nude picture(s), nude
photograph(s)
News presentation 77 obscenity,
nudity, obscene picture(s)
Newspaper for Whites, White settlers obscene photograp(s),
obscene liter-
White newspaper(s) White Press, White ature, pornography,
striptease shows,
Paper(s) 6,24,46,51,57,63,69 nakedness
79,98,99,101,102,134
71,73,75,77,79,83,84,181,182 Nyalugwe, Naphy
3,153,154,156,
183,184,193 157,159,190

Index
Nyerere, Julius 3 controlled press/
newspaper(s), party
Nyanja 51,55,61,182 p a p e r ( s ) ,
5,139,140,189,190
Nyasaland, Malawi 3,7,14,15,23,73 Party militants,
120,123,136
Nyimba 166 Pa r t i c i p a t o r y
democracy, 125 128
154,189
o Partnership
44,60,65
Oath-taking 94 Parastatal firms,parastatal
companies

272
Introduction
Obscenity, obscene picture(s), obscene 131,196
photograph(s), obscene literature, nude Paris Missionary Society
10
picture(s), nude photograph(s), nudity Paver, CAG 53,61
pornography, striptease show, nakedness Peacemarker, peace
1,2,65,77,81,184
79,98,99,101,102,134 184
Official Press state-owned/controlled P e n n y
newspaper, penny press, 47
Press/newspaper(s), official publication Phillips J.G 47
Government organ, government news- Philosopphy of
Humanism,
Paper(s) 3,4,5,6,47,112,114 Humanism,
Humanist State 16,17,97
115,131,140,169,185,187,192 104,126,186,195
193 Phiri Amock
96,97
Oil Pipeline 16 Phiri Masautso 177
Olds R 29 Photograph(s),
photograph(s), pict-
Oligarchy 65,125 ures, 29,52,73,98,120,134
,135,148
Ombudsan 17 170,179
One-party rule, one-party state, one party Picture(s), photograph(s),
photogra-
Participatory democracy 2,17,105 pher 29,52,73,98,120,134
,135,148
123,139,146,150,186,188,193 170,179
197.197 P i c t o r i a l
editorial(s),
pictorial view
Open letter(s) 73,152,153 119
Opinion leader(s) 3 Pierson Mike
104
Opinion(s) 6,17,19,26,28,55,56,60 Pipeline, oil pipeline 16
105,107,118,126,128,138,139 Policy policies of
newspaper(s),
140,147,152,184,186,196,198 stand policy statement
5,6,11,22,29
opposition 43,45,46,57,63,94,181 53,74,76,80,91,93,103,11
2
185,187 197 116,117

273
Press in Zambia
order-in-Council, Orders-in-council 10,43 Police, police force 26 113
116 163
Our Comrade say , column 126 127 165
Outspoken, outspokenness, critical, criticism P o l i t i c s
43,76,79,117,129,164
Criticized, criticize, criticizing Politician(s)
3,4,34,44,94,126,134
Critical stance critic(s) 51,55,65 145,146,167,179,190,191
,193
73,80,85,88,94,97,103,104,107 194,195,199,200
112,114,116,117,119,120,122 Political climate 77
126,128,129,131,139,185,190 political news 72,79
P o l i t i c a l
commentaries 79
P Political party,
political parties, 14,
Parliament, British 80 76,77,107,155
Parliamentary caucus, of UNIP 99 Pope 129
Parliament Debates (publication), par Popularity 50 53
liamentary proceedings, Parliamentary Pornography, nude
picture(s), nude
Procedure(s) 152,153,190,191 photograph(s) obsenity,
nudity, ob
198,199 scene picture(s), obscene
photograph
Parliamentary privilege(s), privilege(s) obscene literature,
striptease show,
157,159 n a k e d n e s s
79,98,99,101,102,134
Party ownership, party-owned, party Power of the
press 84

The Press in Zambia

Praise(s) 140141 houses, publisher(s)

55,60,63,68
Pravda 115 77,82,84,107,11
4,119,124,134
Press, newspaper(s) 1,2,3,4,5,6,19 139,154,167,179,192,196
24,25,27,29,60,80,84,85,89 Public opinion,
public criticism(s),

274
Introduction
96,97,105,108,124,126,134 public reflection,
public discussion
136,138,139,140,148,150,153 112,114,116
154,155,156,157,158,166,167 Public relations 104
168,173,180,181,183,184,185 Pullon B. 35
186,189,191,192,194,194,195 Punabantu, Milimo
6,108,150,152
196,197,198,199,200
Press Association, of Zambia PAZA Q
171,172
Press censorship, censorship 25,26,92 Queen of England, British
Monarchy
114,135,136,158,194,199 10
Press Council 199 R
Press Council Bill, proposed 120,124 R a c i a l
segregation, racial problem,
125,126,138,140,150,171,187 racial discrimination,
racialism, racis
188,189,192,199 m, race, racist sentiments,
racial
Press club(s) 171 tension, racial bias, racial
approach
Press freedom, freedom of the press 2,3 racial conflict, race
relations, racial
82,83,85,114,115,133,134,138 group, racially divided
6,11,14,15
140,148,150,157,158,159,167 16,21,22,26,27,31,46,59,6
3,65
168,186,187,189,190,192,193 76,80,84,88,89,144,181,1
82
196,198 184,185
Pressman, pressmen, newspaperman, new- Radio (broadcasting),
radio, wireless
spapermen, newsman, newsmen, journalist 49,105,182,193
Reporter(s) 2,3,41,49,50 Radio station(s) 197
56,79,85,89,96,97,98,104,124 Railway line, railway
11,16
125,126,131,135,136,138 Reader(s), reading public,
readership
139,150,154,157,158,166,170 49,50,52,53,55,56,62,68,7
2,80
171,172,173,178,179,184,186 81,85,102,103,111,112,1

275
Press in Zambia
14,116
187,188,189,190,191,192,193 118,119,123,126,158,165
,167
195,197,198,199,200 175,178,179,182
,184,188,190
Pretoria 36 191
Price(s) 16,146,148 Referendum 23
Principle(s) 131 Religious movement(s),
religion,
Printing 132 r e l i g i o u s
belief(s) 19,121,188
Print media 5,104 Renault House
179
Printpak 178 Report(s),
reported, reporting
Private newspaper(s), privately owned 6,124,126,135,168
newspaper(s) mass media 1,3,5,6 Report(s), newsman,
newsmen,
37,62,63,82,181,192,193 newspaperman,
newspapermen,
Progress, development, development prog- journalist(s) pressman,
pressmen
1,3,15,22,114 2,3,41,49,50,56,
79,85,89,96,97
Propaganda, war propaganda 1,53,65 98,104,124,125,
131,134,135,136
68,69,140,165 138,139,150,154
,157,158,166,170
Protectorate, protectorate Government 171,172,173,178,179,184
,186,187
10,11,25,26,27,29,31 188,189,190,191
,192,193,195
Protestant(s) 188 197,198,199,200
Prospect(s) 10, Reporting style
126,136,154,178,184
Publication, publications 2,3,4,36,49 Reporting,
interpretative 80,126,195
81,101 R e p u t at i o n ( s )
105,176
publish, published, publishing, publishing Responsible journalism,
(journalism

276
Introduction

Index
Social responsibility 80,81,83 Sesheke 10
Responsibility (of newspaper) 166 Settler(s),Whites(s),White
settler(s)
Reuter 40,85, 9,11,14,15,16,19
,21,22,23,24,27
Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company 29,30,31,40,41,4
3,46,51,53
37,40,63,82,84 63,65,73,75,76,77,85,88
Rhodesia Railways 43 181,184,193,196
Rhodes, John Cecil 10,11 Sex, sex problems, sex
education
Rights(s) 11 44 105 sex articles, sex
scandals, 79,81,98
Robinson AEP
99,101,102,119,138,185
Rodriquez, Joe 3 Shaba, Katanga 11
Role, of the press, role of newspaper, 5 Shareholder(s) 17
77,82,94,111,114,136,140 Sheet-fed-press 71,74
150,181,187,189,190,193,197 Sierra Leone 4
200 S i g n e d
editorial
175
Rome 119 Sipalo Munu 69
Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Church Slump 16,169
Catholics 77,79 Slaves, slavery, slave trade
9
Rowland, Roland 84,85,91 Smith, Ian,
16,85,88,107,171
Royal Gazette, The 4 Smoke 49
Royal Gold Coast Gazette, The 4 Snijders, Max L., 1
Rubber-stamp 151 S o c i a l
responsibility theory of the
Rumour(s) 25 26 press, responsible journalism
80,81,83
Rusike, Abby 170 Socialism, socialist(s)
145,175,188
Russia 22 Society of
African Newspaper
Rzechorzek, Frank 88 Editors, 79

277
Press in Zambia
Sources of news,
news sources, 26
South Africa,
South African(s), south
S African descent,
9,11,14,16,21
Saidi, William, 139,152 35,37,75,82,83,85,97,112,
144
Salisbury, Harare 14,29,43,53,55 145,171
75,84,92 Southern Rhodesia,
Rhodesia, South,
Sampson, Anthony 71 the South,
Zimbabwe 7,11,14,16,23
Sanger, Clyde 66 24,27,37,44,53,55,63,66,7
1,72
Scientific socialism 120,126,175,188 82,85,88,97,107,
108,182,183,197
Second World War, World War Two (II) Southern Province
Farmers improve-
26,34 ment Fund,
SPAFIF, 144
Scott, Dr. Alexander 40,41,43,46,63 Soko, Axon, 155
65,69,71,181,183,193 Soko,Shadreck,
171
Sedition, seditious 79 Spiritual healing,
spiritual healer,
Segregation, racial segregation, racial problem faith healing, faith healer
129,130
Racial discrimination, racialism, racism, race
Racial conflict, race relations, racist stance, Sports news 21
Racial group racist statement, racial tension State(s), the State
1,5,,17,82,97,105
Racial bias, racial approach, racially divided 120,128,129,131,133,138
,139,140,
6,11,14,15,16,21,22,26,27,31 141,142,143,148
,150,162,185,186,
46,59,63,65,76,80,84,88,89 187,188,189,190
,192,194,196,197
144,181,182,184,185 State control,
state controlled news
Sensationalism, sensational (newsstories) paper/press, state
ownership, state

278
Introduction
sensational news, sensational reporting, owned newspaper/press
1,3,5,97
81,89,104,154,186,195 133,138,139,192,194,197
Sensitive issue(s) 81 Stand(s), policy, policies
of newspa-
Servan 178 per(s) policy
statement 5,6,11,22,29,

The Press in Zambia

74,76,80,84,91,93,103,112,116 Television 105,108,193

117 Te r e s i a n u m
Press,77
Standing Orders Committee (of Parliament), Third Estate 4
Standing Order 36,151,153 Third World
2,129
Standard Bank 122,170 Thomson Roy 62
Standard, Nairobi 1129 Times Newspaper
103,136
Stone Age, stone age site 9 Times of Zambia,
The, The
Story, stories, newsstory, article, new, 2 Northern News,
6,28,32,82,85,88,91
6,19,21,26,28,36,40,47,49 92,93,94,96,98,99,103,10
5,108
50,51,52,55,56,60,66,68,71,72 134,135,136,138,139,140
,141
79,80,81,96,98,103,104,107,111 142,143,144,147,150,151
,152
117,118,119,126,134,135,136 153,154,155,157,159,167
,169
138,139,140,141,147,148,154 171,176,184,185,186,187
,189
160,161,166,167,171,173,177 190,191,193,195
182,186,188,189,190,195,196 Timesgate, 134
197,198 Titus Talking column 72
Stinger 55 Titbits 21 29
Striptease shows obscenity, obscene literature Trade union(s) labour
union, 21
Nude picture(s), nude photograph(s) nudity, 44
Pornography, nakedness 79,98,99,101,102,134 Tranter W. 19
Sub-editor, sub-editing, sub-edited 184 Transmission belt,

279
Press in Zambia
conveyor belt 134
Sub-servient 124 140
Subsidize(d), subsidy, subsidizing 5,60 Tribal balancing, tribe(s),
tribesman,
62,84,169,170,183,191,192 tribesmen,
tribalism, tribal areas 9,10
Sudan 129
11,51,62,164,191
Sunday Drum, proposed 172,179,180 Tucker, Keith
34,35
191 U
Sunday Post, The Post 172,177,178 Uganda 71
179 191 UNESCO, UNESCO
Constitution 1
Sunday Times of Zambia, Sunday Times Uncensored 51
Zambia News 84,85,92,96,98,99 Unity 80,134,158
101,108,135,185,186 Unilateral
Declaration of independe-
Suppressed news, news suppression nce UDI
16,85,88
Censorship 25 26 92 114 135 United Federal
Party UFP 62,75,81
136,158,194,199 United Nations, UN 1,103
Suspended interest (story), 170 United Progressive Party
UPP, 17 18
Swaziland 171 118,186
Syndication, news service, 171 United States (of
America), USA
A m e r i c a
41,47,184,195
T United National
Independence Party
Tabloid 19,71,75,77,117,133,173 UNIP, UNIP youths, ruling
Party
178,179 the Party, Party and
Government
Takeover, state takeover(s), party takeover UNIP Womens League
15,16
1,4,108,138,189 17,18,40,57,68,69,73,74,7
5
Tambatamba Mark 170 76,77,81,85,88,89,94,96
Tanganyika lake 9 97,98,102,103,1

280
Introduction
07,108,112,123
Tanzania, Tanganyika 3,7,71,91 124,126,127,128,134,136
,139
Tell me Rosemary column 119 140,141,143,144,145,146
,147
Tell me Josephine column 72,119 150,151,154,155,156,158
,161
Telegraph, telegraphy 105 162,163,164,165,167,168
,169
Telephone, telephony 72, 105 171,173,183,185
,186,187,189
Teleprinter, telex, 71, 134 193,196,197,199

Index

Universal suffrage 15 Wirelesss, radio

(broadcasting) 49,
University, University of Zambia, campus 105,182,193
university students, university World 1,2,3,49,65,79,80,8
1,96,99
graduates 15,16,97,114,115,124 102,104,111,117,119,138
,154
178167,188,194,197,198
Unofficial (elected member(s) of Legco) 167,188,194,197,198
10,34 World news, news of
the world 52,71
Ushifwayo 52 World War I, First World
War, war 26,51
World War II,
Second World War,
War 26,34
V Wright, Vernon
103
Verwoerd, Hendriek, 112,113 Wykerd E.C
27,32,34,35
Victoria Falls 7,9,10
View(s), viewpoint, opinion(s) 2,3,6,60 Y
77,89,111,112,115,117,118,125 Yankee, American(s)
29,32,34,35,80
134,138,147,152,153,168,197 115
Violence 4,15,57,63,81 Yeta, M 112
Y e l l o w

281
Press in Zambia
journalism 195
W Yoyo, Arthur 175,
176
Watchdog(s), (role of the press/newspapers)
62,194,199 Z
Watch Tower(s), Watch Tower Church Zaire, Belgian Congo,
7,9,11
Watch Tower Sect, 52,120,121 Zambia, Northen
Rhodesia, the
Wateridge, Alan 3,6 north 3,5,6,7,9,1
0,11,14,15,17,18
Walfare society, welfare societies 11,14 19,22,23,24,26,27,28,29,3
0,31
Welensky, Roy 14,15,23,31,32,34 32,34,36,40,41,43,44,49,5
1,55
37,39,40,41,53,69,71,73 57,62,63,65,66,69,71,73,7
5
74,75,76,77,181,193 76,77,80,82,84,8
9,91,92,94,99
Weekend World 172,173,175,178,179 101,107,111,116,117,119
,122
191 124,127,128
,129,130,13
1,133
West, The, 4, 194 136,138,139,144,145,146
,154
West Africa, 71 156,157,158,161,165,167
,170
Western democracy 186,194 171,177,180,181
,183,185,186
Western Province, Barotseland 73 187,188,189,191,193,194
West German 133 195,196,200
Western Values 195 Zambia African
National Congress
Western journalists 4 ZANC 14,15,57
White(s) White settler(s), Whiteman Zambia Daily
Mail, The Mail, Africa
Whitemen, White people, White minority n Mail, Central African
Mail, Zamb-
9,11,14,15,16,19,21,22,23 ia Mail, 6
24,27,29,30,31,40,41,43,44,46 40,41,68,82,91,108,111,1
12,113

282
Introduction
51,53,63,65,73,75,76,77,79,85 114,116,119,134,139,155
,160
88,181,184,193,196 170,171,183,185
,187,190,191
White voters, 32 192,193,195
White newspaper(s), White press, White paper(s) Zambia Engineering and
Construct-
24,46,51,63,69,71 ion Company
ZESCO 136
73,75,77,79,83,84,181,182 Z a m b i a n ( s )
85,104,114,122,128,140
183,184,193 145,178,194
Wilson, Harold 85,88 Z a m b i a
Government, the Governme-
Wina, Arthur 155 nt of Zambia, the
Government, 74,81
Wina Glenda, 80 88,91,92,93,94,96,97,98,9
9,103,104
Wina, Sikota, 66,69,80,83,97,98,99 107,108,112,114,122
179,180,183,191

The Press in Zambia

124,125,126,128,138,143,144
146,147,150,151,152,155,160
163,164,165,167,168,169,170
171,185,186,187,191,192,197
Zambia National Holdings 139,173
Zambia News, Sunday Times of Zambia,
the Sunday Times 84,85,92,96,98
99,101,108,135,185,186
Zambia News Agency 108
Zambia Newspaper Ltd. 96,97
Zambia Times 84,85,108
Zambian press, Zambian newspaper 63
98,104,140
Zambia Publishing Company 170
Zambia Printing Company 177
Zambezi, river 7,9,10,21,37
Zambianizing, Zambianize, 85
Zimbabwe, Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia
South, the South, 7,11,14,16,23

283
Press in Zambia
24,27,37,44,53,55,66,71,72,82
85,88,97,107,108,182,183,197
Zulu, Ben 165
Zulu, Pauline, 165
Zulu, Grey, 94,96
Zulu, Samu, 139

284