Not guilty: Zodiak editor pleads granted bail
Lilongwe Magistrate Court has freed Gabriel Kamlomo, editor for Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), a privately owned radio station on a bail.
Kamlomo (pcitures second from left) was arrested on Tuesday – 7 July 2009 – by Malawi’s police in the capital, on accusation of misleading a police officer and causing public alarm by broadcasting, what the police say is an alleged false murder case.
He appeared before the court in the morning where the state changed the initial charge to press him with an offence of publication of material likely to cause public alarm.
The state represented by Lilongwe Police Head of Prosecutions, Levison Mangani had objected to the granting of bail arguing that Kamlomo could interfere with investigations.
He requested the court to allow Kamlomo to be kept in custody for five days.
The journalist pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer Ian Malera asked the court to flee the journalist saying he would not tamper with evidence and objected to the state plea of detention time extension.
Lilongwe Resident Magistrate, Vikoshi Ndovie ruled that the state had failed to prove that the accused would have interfere with investigations if he were to be granted bail.
He however ordered Kamlomo to be freed on K10, 000 bail bonds with one surety of K10, 000 non cash bond and to be reporting to police every fortnight on Friday’s.
Owen Lupesya, veteran broadcaster at Zodiak radio stood as Kamlomo’s surerity.
Kamlomo was arrested following a news article broadcast by the station on Friday, July 3, 2009 in which two unidentified women said they had been hired to prepare a mutilated body with missing body parts in Lilongwe. The story did not state whether the women worked for the police, a funeral home or hospital.
National Institute of Media in Southern Africa, MISA-Malawi said in the statement that the story surfaced in December 2008 and for several months the station has been trying to get the side of the police on the issue to no avail.
Kamlomo however managed to interview the central region Police Public Relations Officer, John Namalenga who claimed that they had investigated the issue and concluded that it was a false story. The station nevertheless went on to report the story while giving the side of the police.
Apart from allegations of broadcasting a false story Zodiak’s station manager Mathias Manyeka told MISA-Malawi that the police also accuse Kamlomo of attacking the police insinuating that they [police] were not interested in investigating the murder case.
“ZBS has been investigating the story since December last year. We allowed Gabriel to air the story on July 3, following reluctance by the police to investigate the incident,” said Manyeka.
Misa-Malawi said in the statement that when contacted for comment, Namalenga claimed that Kamlomo broadcast despite being warned that the story was ‘false’.
“The police told Kamlomo that the information he had about the alleged dead body without some body parts missing was false. We even advised him not to air the story because police investigations revealed that the information he had was not true,” he said.
MISA-Malawi has condemned Kamlomo’s arrest in a statement signed by its Chairperson, Brian Ligomeka, MISA-Malawi described the action taken by the police as strange and at the same time an infringement on media freedoms.
“The police have often been calling for tip-offs from the general public to help them in fighting and combating crime. If they are arresting journalists who are supposed to be public watchdogs, how do they expect whistleblowers to be providing them with information?”, reads part of the statement.
The case will resume on 12 August, 2009.
Tagged with: Kamlomo, Police, Zodiak
IT IS BECOMING SUSPICIOUS NOW. DID OR DO THE POLICE GET SOME “OILING” FROM THESE MURDER SUSPECTS? THERE IS NEED FOR THE ANTI-CORRUPTION BUREAU TO THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATE THE ISSUE. WE NEED A STRONG, GOOD PRINCIPLED AND TRUSTWORTHY POLICE SERVICE!
A MESSAGE TO THE IG: DO NOT TOLERANCE SUCH UNDER-PERFORMANCE AND BIASED ACTIONS OF OUR DEAR POLICE SERVICE. GOD WILL NOT HOLD YOU GUILTLESS IF YOU REMAIN SILENT ON THESE ISSUES. THERE HAVE BEEN ALOT OF ALLEGATIONS ABOUT CORRUPTION IN THE POLICE FORCE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING AS THE IG IN AN EFFORT TO CURB THESE MALPRACTICES?
Ineyo i know police yakwathu ku Malawi if you are junior,you can’t make ends meet,the only way to survive is ndikulandira ziphuphu mu devil street mu lilongwe umu timbava tikawabera anthu.I thank Bingu for chasing all the vendors mu oldtown timasowesa mtendere.Ntchito inali kubera anthu ndi kuipisa kumangokozakoza ndi kunyera mu town a very good base for cholera for poor people in Malawi.Malawi police needs of overhauling otherwise you can’t trust kaya i don’t know chifukwa ambiri sukulu sanapite nayo patali ndiye sadziwa malamulo oro kaya ndidyera.Ali ndichisimu chokonda kuyitanidwa u fake bwana ndiyetu amasangalala kwabasi but in the real sense its just a mockery.You are not bosses anthu amangokunamizani.Police ya pakawale ntchito kunkhuta zibukhu pa new york and you expect munthu ameneyo kulemba statement yolongosoka..lets be serious on this!!!!! Mukhito should look on this to have very effective police in Malawi.Zachuluka ndi mbava.This time we need young intelligent,vibrant policemen/women than kuzazitsa mbutuma kumeneko zopanda ntchito.The lowest qualification police and the army should be a MSCE.kwinaku kusamvesetsa zinthu izi imakhala kuti sukulu ndi njeee.Ndiyetu apolisi amu kawale ndi mu devil street watchout!!!!!! nthawi yolandira ziphuphu yapita..this is new malawi…cleaning up the system.Never say that you were not warned.
The Kawale Police surely knows something about this. ACB, please investigate.Arresting journalists is not the right way of silencing news investigators.
Listening from the woman’s story, we know the date when this happened – 24th December 2008.
Parade all police officers who were on duty at Kawale Police station on 24th Dec 2008 and let the woman identify the ones in question. Dont shield them.
Its good that Kamlomo has been granted bail.We are looking at police as to wheather they hate Zodiak or Kamlomo in particular.If this continues,it will threaten the journalists.
Palibe nkhanitu apa. Nkhani yovuta ndiyosambitsa maliroyo. Mwalephera kupanga ma investigation nokha. We need a reformed police with the new IG
First – look after the security of the woman.
Secondly – since the name of the victim is known .. make a follow up to her village where she comes from and find out whether she got lost
Thirdly – take the owner of the house this incident happened (which I know Kamlomo Knows)
Find out what the owner does for a living and interrogate him/her obout the issue at hand.
THIS IS THE ONE TO BE KEPT FOR SOMETIME IN CUSTODY FOR INTERROGATION – UNTIL YOU PROFFESSIONALLY DO YOUR WORK.
Finally you will have done your work Malawians are keen to find out who actually are killing innocent people for sale.
I rest my CASE.