Leading journalist dies

Bright Mwape, one of Southern Africa's leading journalists, died in a Windhoek hospital on Monday after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident on Friday, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) announced on Tuesday. Mwape, 33, was in charge of MISA's Media Information Unit, whose projects include the daily monitoring and international reporting of press freedom violations in all the countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and also produces MISA's bi-monthly publication on media advocacy themes entitled "Network News". According to MISA, at the time of his death, Mwape was the principal coordinator of a regional media lawyer's conference scheduled in Windhoek at the end of this month. The theme of the conference is "State Security, Official Secrecy and Access to Information: A New Approach for the Next Millenium" is being jointly co-hosted by South African-based Freedom of Expression Institute and Article 19, the UK-based international anti censorship group. In 1996, while working for "The Post" of Zambia, Mwape spent 23 days in detention along with Fred M'membe, the newspaper's Editor-in-chief, after they were sentenced for contempt of parliament for publishing articles criticising statements made in Zambia's parliament by the country's vice-president. Mwape's other activities included editing the 1997 and 1998 editions of MISA's annual State of the Media report entitled "So this is Democracy?". He also edited the first two editions of the "Southern African Media Directory" as well as managed "MISANet", a regional electronic news wire service.