Reflecting on our past 16 years

Reflecting on our past 16 years
By Editor
Thursday July 26, 2007 [08:34]

Today marks 16 years of The Post’s existence, 16 years of our existence. As is the case during anyone’s birthday, there is a lot to be said; a lot to be reflected on. We also have a lot to say about ourselves, a lot to reflect on about these 16 years of our existence. However, we will say just a little because if we are to say everything about our experiences and lessons during the past 16 years, all the pages of our newspaper might not be enough.

And in saying that little, we will anchor the narration of our experiences and lessons on one or two points in our mission statement which was adopted in February 1991. The first point is:

“Our political role is to question the policies and actions of authorities and all those who wield or aspire to wield social, economic and political power over the lives of ordinary people”. The second point is: “We shall aim to protect and promote the newly emerging democratic political culture in which the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals are guaranteed through campaigns on issues that arise from our own investigations, reporting and analysis.”

But before we dwell on these two points, we want to say a few things about our existence. Sixteen years ago, we started as a small weekly newspaper on a small rented property with very few members of staff numbering below thirty. Today, we are a leading newspaper operating from our own premises in various locations with a number of full time employees standing at around three hundred dotted in all parts of the country.

While it was not possible for us, 16 years ago, to distribute the newspaper to all parts of the country using our own means, today we are able to reach all corners of the country in record time using our automobiles. By the way, this costly activity is unprecedented in the history of the media in Zambia. There are more success stories than failures we can narrate.

But in a nutshell, we can only state that we started as a young baby faced with the challenging or learning life. We had a lot to learn and more skills to perfect. We were not afraid to make mistakes because we realised that if one never made errors or mistakes, one might not discover the correct or most expedient way of doing things.

Thus, we have perfected - through making mistakes and learning from them - our practice of journalism over the years. We have also improved our various skills and subsequently improved our style of managing the newspaper as a business. All this was achieved not without difficulties. We endured all the unfavourable seasons and trying moments, knowing that little by little the measure is filled. We constantly reminded ourselves that persistent effort helps to complete a task.

Today, The Post is a huge success media story, thanks to our loyal readers and advertisers who have stood with us through thick and thin. Without their unflinching support, we could not have withstood all the turbulent times especially during the Chiluba regime. These readers and advertisers have stood with us through thick and thin. So when we talk about The Post’s success story, most of that success could not have been achieved without their determined support coupled with that of our committed and hardworking workforce. As stated earlier, we can fill the pages discussing this issue.

For now, we want to look at our journalistic role in connection with our mission statement. Part of our mission is to question the policies and actions of authorities and all those who wield or aspire to wield social, economic and political power over the lives of ordinary people. Another aspect of our mission is to protect and promote the newly emerging democratic political culture in which the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals are guaranteed through campaigns on issues that arise from our own investigations, reporting and analysis.

Over the years, this is what we have strived to do. And in doing this, we have several times been misunderstood, insulted, defamed, slandered and even maliciously prosecuted by the enemies of the truth; those who would want to deviate us from our mission statement. However, we have stood firm as we continue to question those in authorities in making them accountable to our people.

Sometimes we have mounted very rigorous campaigns on issues that arise from our own investigations, reporting and analysis.
That is why we laugh sometimes when we hear people like information minister Mike Mulongoti suggesting that we should only be exposing the wrongs in society and not proceed to comment on those revelations. Mulongoti also feels that we should only report about things that excite the public in general and the government in particular. According to Mulongoti’s myopic or blinkered view, we are not supposed to be critical or analytical in our reporting. We should just exist to excite him with his colleagues in government.

Then we ask ourselves: “Why should this Mulongoti protest when we say he is a small-minded person?”. Anyway, we have no difficulties understanding his warped thinking. These are men who had given up the dream of ever being appointed Cabinet ministers. And because this dream materialised at the time he least expected it, Mulongoti now has to do everything possible to protect his job. And as has been the case with many in government before him, Mulongoti thinks he will only preserve his job by attacking The Post, by isolating himself as the brave one who can take on The Post.

Out of desperation, Mulongoti is even making illegal pronouncements by justifying threats of physical violence against us by those whose questionable activities we expose. We wonder what sort of law Mulongoti learns at the University of Zambia.

He claims that those who are criticised in The Post would be justified to resort to physical violence because they have no other forum to express themselves. How daft can Mulongoti be so as not to see the emptiness of this statement! Can he genuinely claim that they have no other forum to express themselves when we have given them space in our newspaper to answer back, and sometimes to even insult us? Didn’t we, or don’t we allow Mulongoti’s outragous outbursts on our pages even when we knew or know that he had nothing sensible to say? Didn’t we allow GBM to insult us using our own newspaper? Can Mulongoti tell us how many contrary and very critical views to the government are allowed in the government media?

Anyway, enough of Mulongoti because he is not the only one who has behaved in this way against us. He is part of our lessons and experiences in the last 16 years.

Sometimes people accuse us of not allowing any criticism targeted at ourselves. This cannot be anywhere near the truth because some of the positive changes we have made over the years are a direct result of our acceptance of constructive criticism. We are very open to criticism. Of course, like any reasonable person would do, we do not value criticism calculated to destroy and not build.

Over the years, we have matured like old wine and have learnt to be more tolerant. We tolerate people like Mulongoti and many others who try to get under our skins. This is because we realise that as imperfect human beings, it is possible that sometimes we can unintentionally wrong other people and that when this happens, we expect them to be tolerant towards our wrongs.

As we look into the future, our challenge is to continually strive for higher editorial standards by closely monitoring the accuracy, balance, clarity and style of reporting in line with our mission statement. This is because our primary object is to produce the best quality newspaper in Zambia in order to exploit the gap in the market. And in doing this, we shall embrace all readers from a business executive to a taxi-driver who desire to be informed honestly and independently of events both at home and abroad.

And as our editorial policy dictates, we shall at all times strive for balance in the way we select, write and present news, bearing in mind that there are almost always different views on any issue and on the interpretation of events. It is our duty to expose our readers to different sides of the story.

Above all, we shall at all times defend the freedom of the press and other media to collect information and express comment and criticism. It is not our duty to only report exciting news.