"This is going to spread like a veld fire."

DW Akademie: At the last minute, Zambia's government has just cancelled RightsCon, the world's leading human rights summit in the digital age.The organizers say this was due to Chinese interference. What is your take on the reasons? 

Tabani Moyo: This is a missed opportunity by the Zambian government, squandered if you'd like me to say, as it could have handled the situation better. It's really deplorable to get to a situation where, after so many efforts of organizing in the region, it would have been a real opportunity for the whole world to converge, people of diverse backgrounds, diverse expertise, diverse experiences, trying to shape conversations on policy, on reality, on how the digital rights and digital space evolve. 

How does the cancellation of RightsCon impact UNESCO’s World Press Day Conference program and the freedom of expression community in general? 

Technically, you can say that this is no longer a global conference. UNESCO itself has issued an adjusted program: global commemorations will be virtual, taking place at a later date and across the world. The event that will be held in Lusaka, if you look at the composition of the speakers and the layout of that agenda compared to the initial one, can safely be described as more of a regional program. So, the cancellation of RightsCon knocked out the global standing of the World Press Freedom Day commemorations.

This is a rather unfortunate decision by the Zambian government. It could’ve had the opportunity to present a global program in the digital rights space and a global program for the World Press Freedom Day commemorations. 

How is MISA affected by the cancellation? 

MISA was supposed to be on panels that were being sponsored to enrich conversations. Our strategy is always to connect the dots between what is happening in the Global South and the Global North. This was an opportunity, as it’s always a huge effort to attend and articulate components of our digital rights work and world press freedom at Global North stages. 

Now, many activists could not meet; many conversations could not take place. How does that affect people in Zimbabwe or Malawi or even Germany? 

By separating World Press Freedom Day from the digital rights conference, the Zambian government has diminished appreciation of the broader ecosystem of rights. Shifts in geopolitics and malign actors within the ecosystem are distorting the real standing of freedom of expression and how it is supposed to engage other freedoms, such as the right to know, the right to education and even the right to life. 

And this is going to affect us, because it is going to be intertwined with the issues of surveillance, cyber security, limitations on media freedom and the right to express ourselves in contexts like these, where a foreign power can actually dictate what you do and what you don't do with digital rights. It's a cause of concern because it limits our ability to further enhance our rights as a region.

Do you believe this interference and the restriction of civic space of a global conference is part of a general trend? 

Although it may seem particular to the Zambian context, it's going to spread across the African continent like a veld fire. What we have seen in an African context is that it takes one to make the first bold move, and the rest will imitate. If this precedent has been set in Zambia, I believe we are likely to face challenges the next time we try to host an event in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and other African countries. We have learned that the laws and practices are cut and paste.

At the local commemoration on World Press Freedom Day, the Minister of Information of Zambia painted a picture that freedom of expression was substantially expanding. How would you assess the situation in Zambia as well as in Southern Africa? 

Well, at the Southern African level, I think it's a mixed bag, and it's presenting a situation of the media under siege: it ranges from the criminalization of satire to attacks on journalism, including online attacks, to creeping censorship. And it comes in phases.

If you look at Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, this is a bracket of countries that seem to take one step forward and three steps back. They made a bold move with the establishment of self-regulation. Everyone was up and clapping. Next, they brought in stringent cyber-regulation legislation. The same goes with the decision to block RightsCon.  

The same with Zimbabwe: It moves on towards media and information literacy policy, AI policy, and you say, ‘wow, they are making a great move.’ The next thing that happens is that an editor is arrested for satire, and a journalist spends 72 days in prison for just exercising their right to express. In Mozambique, journalists are shot, disappear without a trace. So, in essence, we are regressing; we are under siege. 

What can we do now to show solidarity with Zambian colleagues? And what can we do as media development organizations in Southern Africa? 

I think this requires a multi-pronged strategy. Firstly, to acknowledge and take a strong stance that the cancellation of RightsCon was deplorable across the board. But we should seize the opportunity presented by UNESCO's regional meeting to engage with the "mixed bag nature" of Southern Africa, with one step forward and three steps backwards. 

As civic actors, we must have that separate power to boycott, to engage, but equally so to propose alternative models through research – like MISA has through the African Media Barometer: present evidence to the government to say 'this is the challenge and these are practical steps to address it.'

As a movement, we should not recoil in fear but rather appreciate the peculiarities of local actors within each specific context and support them – through diplomacy, activism, and evidence-based interventions – so that they do not give up on future engagements and do not stand in isolation. 

If you could ask Zambia's president or government for three things, what would they be? 

Firstly, as we head toward elections, I would definitely ask for guarantees of safety and security for journalists and activists, as a strategic necessity. The second ask is to review and reform legislation to enable local media, freedom of expression activists and the international community to engage with the electoral process in a way that is more transparent, open and responsive to the broader benchmarks that have been set globally. The last issue is to strengthen media development work and become an ally rather than an opponent of it. I think the entry of Hichilema’s administration brought with it some hope. I think they need to deliver on that promise. 

Tabani Moyo, thank you very much. 

(Interview by Peter Deselaers)