The Freedom of Expression Institute is devastated by the death of Media Institute of Southern Africa's Regional Information Co-ordinator, Mr Chola Bright Mwape, who died last afternoon after sustaining serious injuries in a motor car accident in Namibia on Friday August 13. Mwape is regionally and internationally known as one of the foremost media freedom activists in the SADC region.

The Freedom of Expression Institute has always had strong links with MISA and worked closely with Bright Mwape on a number of projects. He was greatly respected by those he worked with and his passing will be a great loss to the cause of freedom of expression and specifically press freedom in the region.

His strong commitment to press freedom saw him detained for 23 days in 1996 along with the editor-in-chief of The Post, Fred M'Membe. He was detained indefinitely by the Zambian Parliament for contempt of Parliament for publishing articles which criticised statements in Parliament by Zambia's Prime Minister. He was eventually released after a successful appeal to Zambia's High Court.

Mwape (33), a Zambian national, died in the Medi-Clinic Hospital in Windhoek, Namibia. Mwape was in charge of MISA's Media Information Unit which executes a broad range of projects including the daily monitoring and international reporting of press freedom violations in 11 SADC countries and produces MISA's bi-monthly publication on media advocacy themes entitled "Network News".

At the time of his death Mr Mwape was the principal co-ordinator of a regional media lawyer's conference to be held 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 Millennium". MISA, the South African-based Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) and Article 19, the UK-based International Centre against Censorship, are jointly hosting the conference.

Mr Mwape was regionally and internationally respected as one of the foremost authorities and commentators on press freedom issues in the SADC region. In April this year he co-chaired the Annual Conference of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) which was held in Cape Town, South Africa. He was a member of the IFEX Council. Mr Mwape was also known for his extensive programmes in furthering the Information Technology (IT) skills of media practitioners and institutions in the SADC region.

Issued 17 August 1999 Contacts: Laura Pollecutt (Executive Director: 083 6041073) Kate Skinner (Chairperson: 082 9266 404) Raymond Louw (Deputy Chairperson: 082 4465155)