Africa-Press – Zambia. There comes a time in every democracy when silence becomes the loudest betrayal. That time is now. The attempt to muzzle KBN TV is not about journalism; it is about control — the same control that slowly strangles nations until truth gasps its last breath. When a regime fears questions more than lies, it reveals not strength but insecurity disguised as power.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was not created to protect politicians from criticism. It was created to protect citizens from propaganda. Yet today, it has become a weapon aimed not at lawbreakers but truth-tellers. They have forgotten that Section 6 of their own Act forbids them from bowing to any authority — yet here they kneel, before the throne of politics, pretending it is law.
The government that once cried for press freedom now trembles before it. They chant democracy in the daylight but whisper censorship in the dark. If a journalist cannot question why justice moves swiftly for some and not for others, what remains of our Republic? When editorial independence becomes a crime, tyranny has already found a home.
The nation must remember: those who silence others today will one day need to be heard — and there will be no one left to speak. Every dictatorship begins with one journalist warned, one editor summoned, one TV station threatened. Then suddenly, the truth becomes contraband.
KBN TV has refused to compromise. That refusal is not arrogance — it is patriotism. For when all others choose safety, those who choose truth become the last defenders of conscience. The pen is not just an instrument of ink; it is a weapon of light. And light, no matter how small, terrifies darkness.
Let the IBA hear this clearly: a government that fears the media fears the people. The attempt to intimidate one newsroom is an insult to every citizen who still believes in democracy. The day a journalist must ask permission to tell the truth is the day the Constitution becomes a prop in a political theatre.
History has no sympathy for regimes that fight the truth. They always lose. Those who captured institutions before — the courts, Parliament, the police — believed themselves invincible too. But the graveyards of power are full of men who thought the same.
If this government believes “Bally will fix it” means fixing the media into silence, then it is not fixing but breaking the nation’s moral spine. A democracy without dissent is not a democracy at all — it is a decorated cage.
To those who still have courage left, stand with the truth. Today it is KBN TV; tomorrow it will be every voice that refuses to praise what is wrong. Truth is not partisan. It is sacred. And when the last camera goes dark, the nation itself will lose its reflection.
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