Zambia: State owned Times of Zambia suspends journalists involvement in journalist union

On 7 May 2010, three Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) chapel chairpersons from the government owned Times of Zambia were suspended by the newspapers’ management for allegedly holding an illegal meeting at the workplace and inciting a sit-in by unionized workers

A report by the Post newspaper of 7 May 2010 monitored by MISA-Zambia said Zambia Union of Journalists Secretary General, Bob Sianjalika on 6 May 2010 confirmed that the chapel chairpersons for Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe had been suspended.  Sianjalika described the move by Times of Zambia management to suspend the three union officials as unfortunate. He said that management had taken the negotiations 20 steps backwards and described the act as a tact to silence the union leaders.

According to The Post Newspaper of 7 May 2010, the ZUJ secretary general expressed sadness that management was quick to accuse workers of asking for too much instead of listening to their concerns. He said the identity of unionized workers were withheld.

However, according to unnamed sources, the three journalists were suspended on allegations that they were members of opposition. The source in the report in the newspaper named the officials as being Delphine Zulu from Lusaka,  Stembridge Musofwe from the Ndola Office and Musonda Shamaoma from the Kitwe chapel.

Times of Zambia employees have been getting delayed salaries for over nine months and between 29 and 30 April 2010 undertook a sit-in for as way of protesting the sit-in. On 1 May 2010 Melody Mwala, ZUJ President was quoted in The Post Newspapers appealing to the unionized workers at Times of Zambia to return to work as the union had written to the management of the newspaper to discuss the issue and were awaiting its response.

- May 10, 2010 by Reagan Malumo

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Source: www.misa.org (received via Email Alert 10.05.2010)