Maravi

We accept Sata's Instructions

We accept Sata's Instructions
By Editor
Wednesday August 27, 2008 [04:00]

Standing up for what is right is not always popular. It may not be pleasant to see the truth, but we can assure anyone that the alternative is virtual slavery. Our job is to tell people the things they don’t know – that is why our business is called news. Our job is to tell people the things they can’t ask for in a survey.

We have never been, we are not and we will never be ashamed to stand on the side of truth. We have said before and we say again, that even if we are the last ones left standing to defend the truth, we will never capitulate. We don’t take a side on the basis of the issue of the day, what is expedient for that day. Anyone who cares to study us will know that we took our side when we started publishing. Our first edition told people what we stood for. We started by exposing corruption.

Maybe some in our midst are too young to remember the coppergate story we had carried in our first edition on Friday July 26, 1991. This involved the now convicted Francis Kaunda who was then chairman and chief executive of the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM). We decided a long time ago, some seventeen years ago, that the ethos of this newspaper would be to stand for the voiceless. We have never shied away from being militant against what is wrong. For those that are in doubt and those who may have forgotten what we stand for, we are happy to remind you that we have never been neutral between good and bad, between right and wrong, between justice and injustice, between honesty and dishonesty.

Like all normal human beings, we value certain simple things in life: we value friendship. We value affection. We do not mind people speaking well of us. But if any of the things we value stand in the way of the ethos of this newspaper, we have never shied away from taking the lonely path of denouncing what is wrong at the risk of losing friendship and being denied affection. We do this because friendship or any relationship that is not based on truth, that is not based on honesty and integrity is not worth keeping. For this reason, over the last seventeen years we have had no problem treading a lonely path. We do not see ourselves departing from this today.

Michael Chilufya Sata has been known to us for a very long time. We have dealt with him when he was in government and also when he has been out of government. We have sometimes been at the receiving end of his defamation and disparaging unfounded attacks. It seems every time he smells an election, he wants to find something to attack us about. He believes that by making malicious attacks, he can cage us.

In 2006 when it suited him, he allowed mobs for hire to come and defame us publicly because we had dared to report that contrary to the pomposity and the self-assured way he was declaring himself winner of the election, President Levy Mwanawasa had wired him. Simply for telling that truth, Sata denounced us and said we, working together with the Nchito brothers, had rigged the elections for Levy. And for this reason, Sata said he did not want to be covered by our newspaper. This matter is today in court.

We never asked Sata to come back to be reported on by our newspaper. He came back on his own. We never invited him. He often comes to our newspaper uninvited. And despite his defamatory behaviour, we always welcome him and treat him with courtesy. Probably he thinks we are fools for doing so. Anyway, some people have got very short memories.

When he was unhappy about his alleged stolen passport, Sata declared publicly that he would not deal with us. This is probably the third time in as many years that Sata is daring us to black him out from our newspaper because he believes that his antics sell the newspaper and we cannot do so without him.

On other occasions, we have chosen to ignore his antics and continued covering him. Since he has this intense and sustainable wish not to be covered by our newspaper which comes out every day, we will grant him his wish. We will carry no story from him – and not necessarily about him – and we will not even accept advertisements from him. Sata has said he will not deal with us because according to him, we are supporting the MMD. He has also said because of our support of the MMD, he will instead deal with our colleagues at the Times of Zambia.

This has gone on too long. His wish is now our command. We wish him well as he begins his dealings with the Times of Zambia. We are dealing with this matter in this way so that even if we are criticised in future, there is a record that the non-coverage of Sata by The Post is a matter which he himself had demanded.

We are used to politicians making all sorts of allegations about us. They want to dictate the way we behave. They want us to make no moral judgements or express our opinion when it suits them. When it suits them, they accuse us of making no judgement on issues. If we were to take our cue from the likes of Sata to determine our editorial line, we would not be able to run a newspaper.

The problem with Sata is that he has no permanent position. He changes all the time like a chameleon. Like an amoeba, he is difficult to catch. The only constant in Sata’s political life is his desire for the presidency. On that he never changes. Everything else is changeable. Sata has chosen his bed. We now invite him to lie in it. We bid him farewell from the pages of The Post and wish him well.

Labels: SATA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 5:20 AM