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It’s a good thing to have a free press – Rupiah

It’s a good thing to have a free press – Rupiah
Written by Patson Chilemba in Lusaka and Christopher Miti in Chipata
Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:40:42 AM

IT is a good thing for Zambia to have a free press, President Rupiah Banda said on Tuesday. And Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) vice-president Amos Chanda has asked the government not to U-turn on its new position regarding self-regulation of the media.

During a live special programme on Breeze FM in Chipata on Tuesday evening, President Banda however said the media needed to take into account the fact that they had a responsibility to be fair and to publish the truth all the time.

“My personal view is that there is no need for media regulation but if you have seen what happened in the last election, instead of the media regulating themselves saying we are going too far, we are being personal, we are being rude, we are insulting; they thought they had a field day and that’s why there are people out there who are calling for the regulation of the media because of the behaviour of some of you during the last election,” said President Banda.

“What I personally think is that it’s up to how we behave. If the media behaves itself in the manner it should with due respect in the case of men to women, in the case of women to men, in the case of youths to the older people, in the case of the people to their leaders etcetera, we will have a good community making a good use of the media for the benefit of giving the people the information that they need.

I think it’s a good thing that we should have a free press but like all other freedoms, even in your home you love your children to be free but there is a time when you feel that your child has started using the abusive language that they picked up in the street and you would like to advise them not to do it, so I personally I feel that it’s good to have a free press but I would like to ask the press also to take into account the fact that they have a responsibility to be fair and to publish the truth all the time.”

And commenting on President Banda’s statement, Chanda said the statement was a logical conclusion to the debate on the merits of self-regulation as opposed to statutory regulation.

“I hope it brings to an end this debate on the merits of self-regulation as opposed to the demerits of statutory regulation. In fact, that’s why I was saying this is a definitive conclusion to the debate because it has come from the Head of State. We are appealing to the rest of the government bureaucracy and ministers to stick to this and not to U-turn,” said Chanda. “We were actually surprised that it came from the opposition [UPND].”

And Lusaka lawyer Patrick Matibini said the ideal situation was for the media to regulate itself.

However, Matibini urged the media to observe high professional standards in order to ensure successful self-regulation. He said his understanding of President Banda’s statement was that there were no immediate steps to put in place statutory regulating systems.

“I also undertstand the statement to mean that journalists should put in place a working system of self-regulation,” said Matibini. “The onus of ensuring we have a successful regulating system is on the journalists. One of the primary goals of self-regulation is to put into place a mechanism for addressing grievances between journalists and members of the public.”

Labels: FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PRESS, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 9:40 AM