Management at Flava has appealed to Patriotic Front (PF) Publicity and Information chairperson Emmanuel Mwamba to desist from involving the media house in his political agenda.
Mwamba yesterday issued claims on social media stating that he had received information from journalists at Flava FM about police surrounding the station’s premises to prevent UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan from conducting her off-air interviews with reporters.
Speaking when they both featured on Diamond TV’s “Diamond Live” program last evening, Flava FM proprietor Chishala Chitoshi Jr said the station is a non-political media organization and will not be used by Mwamba to make unsubstantiated his political statements.
“I do not involve myself in politics and neither does my station…I will not allow my radio station to be used as a political pawn in whatever it is that Emmanuel Mwamba is trying to achieve,” Chitoshi said.
Chitoshi further challenged Mwamba to be transparent and publicly identify the sources of his information.
He said no Flava FM staff member had been in contact with the former Zambian ambassador to Ethiopia.
“I think let’s be transparent in all our dealings. Let us not just sensationalize. You can claim to be a journalist but for the sake of transparency, I would like him to mention whom he spoke to at Flava FM or TV because none of the members of staff have spoken to Emmanuel Mwamba today,” he said.
While confirming the presence of two police officers earlier at the station, Chitoshi denied assertions that there to block the UN Special Rapporteur during her visit to the station.
“Two police officers arrived earlier in the day before the interview with the rapporteur. They came and spoke to my staff and inquired about the visit from the UN Rapporteur. They wanted information basically pertaining to what was going on and my staff provided them with the information they required after asking for their IDs. After that, they did not stay,” he narrated.
He continued, “There was no police presence at the station. They immediately left after that and when the rapporteur visited the radio station, which was two and a half hours later, there was no police presence, there was nobody surrounding the building and nobody was standing there accosting members of staff or asking them to answer those so-called difficult questions.”
Currently out of the country in the United States, Mwamba had earlier on the program claimed to have been alerted by a source from Flava FM about the incident and remained adamant that police had surrounded the station to block the UN Special Rapporteur.
