For full multimedia story please click on this link https://estherjoyce94.wordpress.com/2018/06/22/wilson-pondamali-pays-heavy-price-for-press-freedom-in-zambia/

All journalists love, live and dream for press freedom in their countries. But when the state and other actors are unwilling to let journalists freely gather, package and disseminate news and information, few journalists are willing to risk their life resisting restrictions on press freedom. Esther Joyce Nakibombo finds out how courage, zeal, resistance and sacrifice of one Zambian journalist for press freedom in his homeland has cost his life.

https://zambiareports.com/2013/07/17/police-abduct-journalist-state-agen...

Wilson Pondamali

Wilson Pondamali is a Zambian investigative journalist who on 16 July 2013 was arrested and charged with possession of military pamphlets. Even when he was granted bail, Zambian police continued to hold him in Mpima Remand Prison in Kabwe, claiming that he attempted to escape from lawful custody and charged him with causing damage to government property.

Before that, he had been arrested several times on allegations of conducting armed robberies and stealing a library book.

“All those funny offences against me aimed at breaking my spirit for journalism but my passion for exposing evil and wrong things keeps me strong. As the fourth estate, we have a professional and prophetic duty to represent the masses and hold other arms of the government accountable,” said Pondamali in an interview.

This resistance however has come at a high price for Pondamali. While in prison on one of the arrests, Pondamali collapsed in his police cell and was admitted to the hospital where he was treated for pneumonia under tight police custody and handcuffed to his hospital bed.

Check out the link below to watch Wilson Pondamali responding to the offences put on him by police.

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In a June 2018 interview, Pondamali disclosed that he has faced number of threats while carrying out his work as a journalist in Zambia which go to the extent of police raiding his residence leaving his little children in fear and traumatized. Early 2018, Pondamali was arrested for his investigative story where he filmed police brutalizing citizens.

“Police has raided my residence in search of unknown things at times even drugs and such things leave my little children traumatized but because of the counseling they get from their mother, they now understand such state matters.” Pondamali said

Wilson Pondamali at the police station.

Pondamali’s experience has put face to allegations that police in Zambia have used crude methods against journalists, including falsely planting fake evidence to secure the basis for a charge. Many journalists in Zambia have been arrested and held in jail under politically motivated absurd charges.

Pondamali says that there is direct censorship by the government on media. “For instance privately owned media houses especially those who critic the government suffer commercial deprivation of adverts from public bodies, harsh laws from regulators,” he says.  He also cites the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) which he says has powers to shut down and sanction broadcast media houses.

This situation is made worse by the bad working conditions which makes it technically and economically volatile to be a professional journalist in Zambia.

“There is very little safety for journalist, furthermore, most of the journalists are not well trained in ICT and lack equipment to use in the field,” said Pondamali.

He added that payment is also poor especially in Community/ private media houses as they earn as little as $100 per month yet the only media house that provided stable jobs for journalists was The Post which closed after allegedly crossing paths with the country’s ruling Patriotic Front.

Such a bad working condition, Pondamani says has made it hard for female journalists to practice and flourish.

“There is not much gender equality in Zambia media system. There are few working women working as senior journalists. The media should accommodate female journalists by making interventions that support them,” Pondamali remarked.

All these opinions are a result of wide ranging experience that Pondamali has had in Zambia’s media industry. He is a trained journalist from the University of Zambia. Some of the media houses he has worked for include the state owned Times of Zambia, The Post Newspaper, Daily Nation and Radio Mano.

 He established the Zambian Punch THE PUNCH an online Publication in November 2017.

In a demanding media industry in Zambia, what distinguishes Pondamali is that he is as a good a journalist as he is a media rights advocate. No wonder in 2013-2017, he was elected to serve on the board of the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) as the membership director.
 

As of June 2018, he is the Editor in Chief at The Punch which he says aims at providing space for the voiceless by investing heavily in investigative journalism.