Reporters Without Borders today expressed its concern about the death
of freelance journalist Don Kulapani on 8 August during the hold-up
of a bar in the capital, and called on the authorities to conduct a
full investigation into this killing, which has coincided with
attacks on journalists by the ruling party.
"We ask you to fully clarify the circumstances of the journalist's
death and to establish that it was not linked to the exercise of his
profession", Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert
Ménard said in a letter to Interior Minister Monjeza Maluza. "The
fact that it coincides with recent attacks on journalists by the
UDF's youth league is troubling, to say the least", Ménard said in
the letter, which requested that Reporters Without Borders be kept
informed about the investigation's progress.
A freelancer who used to work for The Chronicle newspaper, Kulapani
was in a bar in the capital, Lilongwe, on 8 August when four armed
men entered and opened fire, hitting the journalist. They then
stabbed him many times. The assailants took cases of beer, musical
equipment and cash from the till before making off. Kulapani died as
a result of these injuries.
The journalist's death comes soon after the release of a statement by the
ruling UDF denying news media claims that it had a unit tasked with
silencing investigative journalists who "embarrass" the government.
In early August, the National Media Institute of South Africa claimed
to have discovered a UDF plot to attack journalists of the Daily
Times, Weekly Chronicle, Pride and BBC for having accused the UDF of
intending to change the constitution to allow President Bakili Muluzi
to run for a third term in 2004.
Young activists have been implicated in beatings of journalists who
support the opposition party, especially journalists working for the
Chronicle, Kulapani's former employer. The Daily Times had already
alleged in November 2001 that the UDF had complied a list of
journalists who "discredit the party" and that it intended to use its
youth
wing to attack them.
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