Presidential Candidate Banda takes Zambia's Largest

UNCLAS LUSAKA 000974


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KMDR ZA
SUBJECT: Presidential Candidate Banda takes Zambia's Largest
Newspaper to Court as Feud Heats Up

Ref: A) Lusaka 860 B) Lusaka 879


1. SUMMARY: The angry feud between Zambia's most-read newspaper,
The Post, and Acting President (and ruling party presidential
contender) Rupiah Banda has moved this week into the Lusaka High
Court. At the end of September, Banda filed an injunction with the
court to prevent The Post from printing ostensibly libelous material
about him. The Post responded to the injunction with increased
editorial vitriol, and yesterday the court affirmed Banda's right to
seek contempt of court proceedings against The Post and its
editor-in-chief, Fred M'membe. END SUMMARY.


2. Since the death of President Mwanawasa in late August, The Post
- Zambia's largest circulation and only independent daily -- has
been less than subtle in declaring its disdain for Acting President
Rupiah Banda. The Post explicitly supported the candidacy of
Finance Minister Ng'andu Magande (see reftels) to be the ruling
Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) party's standard-bearer in
the presidential election. When the MMD selected Banda over
Magande, The Post shifted to a campaign of increasingly negative,
sometimes ad hominem attacks against Banda. The paper has accused
Banda of, inter alia, using his position to buy votes, dishonesty
about his party affiliation and even immorality for marrying a
significantly younger woman.


3. The attacks led to a formal complaint by the MMD to the Media
Council of Zambia (MECOZ). In a letter by MMD campaign committee
media chairperson Chibeza Mfuni, the MMD contended that since August
20, 2008 (the day after Mwanawasa's death),The Post has written
more than 20 editorial comments that had "unfairly scandalized"
Banda. It also claimed that the editorials were full of "hate
speech," calling into question Mr. Banda's personality and
character. On September 27, the Lusaka High Court granted an
injunction to Banda restraining The Post from publishing libelous
words against him. The court also gave a penal notice to Post
Editor-in-Chief Fred M'membe to comply with the order.


4. The Post responded with a rare full-page editorial entitled
"Rupiah, a shameless liar," that laid bare The Post's charges
against Banda as well as the paper's great disdain for the
candidate. M'membe was quoted in the government-owned Sunday Mail
characterizing the injunction as "meaningless." M'membe suggested
that the 71-year-old Banda was an old man resorting to desperate
measures that he did not even understand. On September 30, The Post
printed the injunction in its entirety, under the mocking headline
"Rupiah's hopeless injunction," which further infuriated Banda and
his lawyers, and resulted in the contempt charges against M'membe
and The Post. The contempt charges will be heard on October 3.


5. Meanwhile, Minister of Information and Banda's campaign manager
Mike Mulongoti was quoted on September 29 saying "When we win the
elections, (I will advise Banda to) just leave the country for a
while and you will find (upon returning) that we have sorted out all
these problems." The Post presented these comments as a direct
threat against the paper. On September 30, Molongoti's comments
were criticized by both Transparency International Zambia and the
Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of disputes.


6. Comment: M'membe, a lawyer and a member of the High Court bar,
usually knows exactly how far The Post can go within the law.
However, as reported previously, the paper's current campaign
against Banda has strained all reasonable definitions of
objectivity. Most of Banda's complaints come from The Post's
questioning of his honesty and his character. Few of these meet the
definition of libel. However, The Post has had the dubious judgment
to question Banda's marriage ("we have questioned the morality
behind a man in his 70s marrying a young lady who is over 40 years
younger than himself, a woman who could be his granddaughter...").
Arguments such as these cement the impression that The Post is out
to get Banda at any cost. Rumors suggest that the core of The
Post's fear of a Banda presidency is that it would threaten business
interests in Zambian Airways, interests that Finance Minister
Magande has allegedly protected. Regardless of its motivations,
however, The Post has surrendered any claim of objectivity about the
nation's presidential election due in four weeks. And M'membe, who
has been jailed before, may yet wind up writing an editorial or two
from behind bars. End comment.

KOPLOVSKY