Canadian Journalist Tries To Hide Sata Bribe Scandal

Kusila Kwa Cobra reported recently that Michael Sata was at Yatsani Radio station handing out K50,000 notes to people. One of their intern staff, Ms Eliasha Stokes reported these illegal actions on a website called Journalists for Human Rights.

Ms Stokes now wants to have her work removed, Kusila Kwa Cobra will consider her request. Her blog has subsquently been removed from the Journalists for Human Rights website; maybe they spotted the hypocrisy of her story? When you see what she has written then you will see why. Ms Stokes letter to us can be found under the story called 'Sata Exposed for Bribing Journalists’. Kusila Kwa Cobra’s reply to Ms Stokes is here:

Ms Stokes,

Thank you for contacting me via the Kusila Kwa Cobra website. You did not leave your email details so this is the only way I can communicate with you. This is of course a very public forum and its contents may be picked up by other journalists, newspapers, radios etc, so I choose my words carefully.

I do not understand your concerns about false ‘investigations’, naming names, “putting false world [sic] into my mouth” as you put it and your right with regard to copyright. You withdrew your article after it was challenged which suggests that you were aware of your mistake. I however totally stand by my work. Let me explain.

First you raise the issue of our investigation proving “absolutely false”, far from it. If I am wrong then I urge you to address the following:

• Deny that you were working at Yatsani Radio when the ‘politician’ attended the premises to “buy air time for an interview”;

• Deny that you took Kw50,000 from the politician;

• Deny that four other people also took money (we accept that they were not journalist, indeed we understand that they were not employees of Yatsani radio but we do have their names);

• Deny that the politician in question was Mr Michael Sata, Presidential Candidate for the PF Party;

As you will see my ‘investigation’ is well informed and I am more than happy to furnish any authorities you choose with the evidence I have uncovered. The authorities I am thinking of are the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the Zambian Police and the Immigration Department. Should you think of any other do let me know. Of course if I am wrong then you will have no problems defending my charges. If I am proved wrong then you have my word that I will retract my story and apologise to you on the Kusila Kwa Cobra website. It would be the professional thing to do.

Your second point is that I put false words in your mouth. Again far from it. I attribute no names to you. I named Yatsani Radio and I named Michael Sata. I could name other names but I will hold back for now, unless of course you want me to.

Thirdly, that your article is not political. Your article is about political corruption, namely bribery. You yourself use the expressions, “a very prominent politician”, “the election is coming”, “The politician reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of K50,000 notes (about twenty dollars). He hands a note to each of the journalists”, “I know it is unethical for a journalist to take money, especially from a politician.”, ““That’s our future President”, remarks one of my co-workers.”, and finally, “Future President or future dictator?”. Ms Stokes you are a journalist, you know the power of words and you know the meaning they can convey; it is you who made the story political, not me.

What this really boils down to is your own hurt journalistic ego. It was you who took money off a politician during an election campaign. It was you who was silly enough to write about your stupidity and then publish it on the web. You are either very naive or you deliberately placed your story so as to attract attention to yourself as a journalist who has witnessed electoral bribery at first hand.

What is most depressing is that after conducting yourself in such an unprofessional manner you choose to hide behind imperialist USA laws. I may well have to remove your text from my website but this story will not die. Kusila Kwa Cobra is monitored in the USA, South Africa, Norway, UK to name but a few, and of course it now has a keen following in Zambia. As a journalist who has taken money off a politician I would have thought you would want to keep a low profile, not raise your head above the parapet.

This issue has nothing to do with copyright. This is a story about political corruption and your involvement in it. You are an accomplice to Mr Sata’s actions, your refusal to go to the Electoral Commission or the police damns you. In Zambia we have a problem with corruption and we expect learned people like yourself to help us in our fight. You are a Canadian; would your actions be acceptable in your own country? The answer is ‘no’, so why do you come to our country and get involved in such illegal actions.

You are nothing more than a cheap journalist who takes money from bad politicians; maybe you should go get a job at the Post.

The Kusila Kwa Cobra Team.