Maravi

Empty scheme against journalists

Empty scheme against journalists
By Editor
Wednesday March 21, 2007 [02:00]

LISTENING to justice minister George Kunda’s on Sunday, it is very clear that the government is up to something nasty against the media and its practitioners. Appearing on MISA-Zambia’s Good Governance programme on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, Kunda told the nation that there should be a statutory press law against journalists, claiming that the profession of journalism had been ‘invaded by people who are not qualified’.

First of all, Kunda must realise that journalism can draw upon other professions for its practitioners, including lawyers like himself. In fact, Kunda practiced journalism at one time when he was a columnist of this newspaper.

Suffice to point out that a lot of work has been done by media scholars on why the profession of journalism should be allowed to draw upon other professions for its practitioners. Of course there are several arguments for and against this position. However, we do not intend to go into that debate for now. Our concern at the moment is to do with the apparent schemes that the government is trying to come up with, in its myopic approach to try and penalise some of the journalists or media organisations it is not comfortable with.

From the outset, we must say that we are not scared of this scheme by the government to enact rules and regulations that are clearly aimed at us as a newspaper. We are not bothered because over the last fifteen or so years of existence, we have been practicing our journalism in the most responsible and professional manner.

Yes, we do accept that we have on a few occasions made unconscious mistakes in terms of our judgement and decisions and we have in the process learnt some good lessons. And we try to make improvements to our work each and every day.

For us, we look at journalistic ethics in terms of our ability to stick to the key canons of the profession. We believe that we have been ethical in our work by insisting on truth, accuracy, impartiality and fairness. We also believe that we have been ethical by insisting on the independence of our work from all forms of vested external interests, including the vested interests of some politicians in government. We are convinced that we have been ethical in our conduct by making our responsibility not to any one interested party but to the wider society and the public good.

We are proud that we have adhered to the questions of moral decency and good taste in terms of the content that we carry in our newspaper. Above all, we are satisfied that we have continued to perform our work within the provisions of the laws of this country. Where it was felt that we have not done so, those aggrieved have sought redress through the courts of law and determinations have made to that effect.

Looking at all this, we are confident that issues of ethical conduct do not affect us in any way. So for some people with little or empty schemes against us, let them go ahead and implement them. And if their final target is us as a newspaper, they shall surely hit a very hard rock.

But we must also state that in as much as we are not bothered by this scheme on us as a newspaper, we are concerned that it is not being done in the best interests of the tenets of a democratic culture.

We are saying this because it is only authoritarian regimes - which have to hide their iniquities and transgressions and shield themselves from public scrutiny - that believe in repressive statutory press laws. In a democracy like ours, the thought of statutory media regulation should not even be entertained. In democratic societies, media freedom should be guaranteed by the fact that the industry should be allowed to regulate itself.

In a democracy, publishers, editors or the journalists of newspapers should be given the freedom to draw up their own codes of ethics. This is so because the essence of journalistic codes is to protect the independence of journalists from undue pressure from other forces. Journalistic codes should not be for the purpose of protecting those who hold public office from scrutiny. From the tone of Kunda’s speech last Sunday, there is a nasty accent that seems to suggest that the government thinks that statutory regulation of the media should work to protect the privacy of politicians in government.

Yes, we do respect the rights of people to privacy. But there is also a limit to privacy if those who hold public office do not conduct themselves well. Those who are in leadership should be prepared to have their lives exposed in public and their actions or decisions should be tried in the court of public opinion. And we don’t think that editorial critiques on government or politicians should be made to be punishable.

In short, what we are saying is that the government’s scheme to legislate against journalists is an empty exercise. If anything, the government is just trying to divert attention from the most important need to enact the Freedom of Information Bill, which has been withdrawn for some time now.

Instead of planning schemes that will frustrate the ideals of democracy and liberty such as freedom of the press and that of free speech, the government should concern itself with the many grey areas of media legislation, not least the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and the Independent Broadcasting Authority Acts.

However, on our part as a newspaper, we still stress the fact that the government is free to proceed with its scheme because we have nothing to hide. In any case, it is an empty scheme.

Labels: EDITORIAL, MEDIA

posted by MrK @ 3:25 AM