PF Govt forces Multichoice to stop airing ‘Talk with Kwangu’ over HH’s wife’s clip

Mutinta Hichilema

Multichoice Zambia has been intimidated and stopped from airing ‘Talk with Kwangu’ radio adverts and marketing material because of a clip for UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema’s wife, Mutinta, reports The Mast newspaper.

The latest episode of ‘Talk with Kwangu’, which airs on Zambezi Magic on DStv had a clip where Mutinta was giving an account of how her husband was brutally arrested by the police for alleged treason.

In another clip, Kwangu gives an account of how Zambia’s media space is shrinking, with rising police brutality against those with opposing views.

According to The Mast, sources have revealed that this particular episode of Talk with Kwangu displeased the PF government, which threatened harsh measures if Multichoice continued to air the material.

“The latest episode of Talk with Kwangu was loaded with what has been happening in Zambia. It has a clip of Mutinta Hichilema narrating what went on a night before her husband’s arrest. Of course, it is quite detailed and doesn’t leave out her suspicions of what she feels the intention of the raid was. That is the part which made the powers that be unhappy, because she alleges that this government wanted to kill her husband,” a senior government source told The Mast. “Then there’s also Kwangu herself talking about the absence of fundamental freedoms in the country. Some of our colleagues in government feel there is no way Multichoice can be allowed to air material that is critical of the PF when it has a partnership with ZNBC and they were suggesting the most outrageous of solutions, even withdrawal of the partnership because of that. No wonder Multichoice was told to stop airing the programme with immediate effect.”

And DStv internal communications and public relations officer Patricia Bupe Mulenga last week issued a memorandum ordering a stop to the airing of radio advertisements and other material associated with Talk with Kwangu.

“Dear colleagues, kindly stop running all the radio adverts and marketing material associated with ‘Talk with Kwangu’ with immediate effect on all our radio shows,” stated Mulenga.

“We will appreciate your quickest action towards this request. Thank you for your continued support.”

This notification from Multichoice coincided with a letter to the editor published in the Daily Nation, a newspaper widely seen as the ruling PF’s leading propaganda tool, where a “disgusted viewer” wondered why the government had allowed Multichoice to air what they called “misleading information” on the programme.

Source: The Mast