Malawi: Editor hurt in civil rights riot. Penelope Paliani-Kamanga, deputy
chief reporter for the "Daily Times", Malawi's oldest daily, was shot in
the knee by a rubber bullet On 27 January by Blantyre anti-riot police, who
fired shots to disperse demonstrators. Members of civil society were
demonstrating against the tabling of a bill in Parliament aimed at allowing
President Bakili Muluzi to serve a third term in office.
Parliament sat on 27 January for a two-day extraordinary session to change
the constitutional limitations of presidential terms in office. Kamanga
told the National Media Institute of Southern Africa (Namisa), MISA's
Malawi chapter, that she and several other journalists were covering the
demonstrations when police fired shots at her.
"The police fired at us, and as I tried to run away a rubber bullet hit a
wall, ricocheted, and hit me on the knee. I lay in agony and could not move
for some minutes," Kamanga said. She told Namisa that journalists rushed
her to a nearby office, where she was given first aid treatment before
being rushed to her newspaper's clinic. She confirmed that she is now able
to walk, although her leg is bruised and badly swollen.
MISA report via IFEX.
http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20030127_malawi.shtml
