Chinyeke Tembo, a Malawian freelance journalist who was arrested Thursday for calling a lady police officer 'beautiful', was Friday charged with 'insulting the modesty of a woman'.
Tembo was arrested when he was among a group of journalists who had gone to a police station in the capital, Lilongwe, to give 'moral support' to a colleague, Maxwell Ng'ambi, who was arrested earlier, Panapress news agency has reported.
Some details:
"Yes, I am out on bail but what is wrong about admiring beauty?" said Tembo outs ide the courtroom.
Ng'ambi, a senior reporter at The Nation, who was also arrested Thursday for allegedly interviewing a jailed senior opposition politician, has also been charged with providing false information to a public officer.
Police claim Tembo, programme manager for Journalists Association Against HIV/AI DS (JournAIDS), fondled the senior police officer's buttocks. But Tembo disputed this, saying: "How can one do that within police premises? I only remarked that s he was beautiful."
Tembo, who has worked for both the country's dailies - The Daily Times and The N ation - said soon after making that remark two uniformed police officers pounced on him. "They beat me like hell," he said. "I am still in pain now."
Tembo said he would lodge an official complaint with the Malawi Human Rights Com mission because "even if it is wrong to admire beauty but I don't deserve a beating".
National Media Institute of Southern Africa (NAMISA) National Director Innocent Chitosi also condemned the beating. "The arrest, though excessive, was enough but the beating was unacceptable," he said, adding that the media rights body was investigating the incident.
