What are they really seeking?

What are they really seeking?
Written by Editor

IT seems those in our politics, especially those in government, are determined to regulate the media in their own way, in a way they have already designed. It is clear that it is not self-regulation of the media they are seeking. Toddy Chilembo, the Deputy Minister of Justice, last week told Parliament that the media was playing double standards by refusing to be regulated. Chilembo said it was important for the media to belong to a professional body that would guide the conduct of its members.

He told the House that “… it is common knowledge that most professional bodies have associations to which they are affiliated and these associations guide the conduct of the members”. And he gave the example of the Law Association of Zambia which he said had regulations that guide the conduct of its members. Chilembo added: “It is interesting to note that some journalists are also lawyers, and they are affiliated to the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ). But I wonder how they find it difficult to belong to a professional media body as journalists if they can accept to be regulated by LAZ as lawyers. These are journalists who are playing double standards. Our position is that the media is free to regulate itself, but if they fail to regulate themselves, we will help them. When you live in the media and do whatever you want, be mindful of other people’s rights. We cannot have media which writes whatever it chooses. You choose one person and you always write headlines about that person. In every game there are rules, and it is important that we have some kind of rules to protect others…”

This is what Chilembo, as the Deputy Minister of Justice, told the House last week. We have a lot of difficulties with the thinking of Chilembo and that of Rupiah Banda and his government on this score.

But we think Press Association of Zambia president Andrew Sakala’s response to the issues, concerns and observations made by Chilembo are much in tune not only with our thinking, but with the general view of all progressive and democratic minded people the world over.

Sakala is right when he says that “politicians have misunderstood statutory regulation of the media”.

We agree with Sakala when he says that there was a misunderstanding with the whole debate by politicians who when they talk about statutory regulation speak as if there was no statutory regulation of the media in Zambia.

Sakala says, “in my understanding, statutory regulation means laws that help to promote freedom of the press and protect the public from malicious publications by the media. Laws of libel are statutory regulation of the media which are laws that protect the public from the media publicising false information on an individual and organisation, that is statutory regulation. Secondly, the electoral code of conduct which is under the electoral Act, this is also statutory regulation of the media. It talks about how the media should cover political campaigns in an election, if you look at the electoral code of conduct, it tells you how the media should conduct itself, that is statutory regulation of the media. There are many laws in the country that regulate the media so when people talk about statutory regulation of the media, they should come clean and say what they want. Are they talking about licensing journalists or calling for a body that would deregister journalists they think are not doing their job fine? Politicians should not try to create laws that are targeted at specific individuals or institutions. Politicians should try to create laws that would help grow Zambia’s democracy.”

We think Sakala has articulated this issue very well. The media institution Chilembo is talking about is The Post. And Sakala is not an employee or agent of The Post. We therefore advise the government and others to deeply meditate over what Sakala is saying.

There is a lot of narrow-mindedness in our politics and in our government. The narrow-mindedness of our ministers is embarrassing and sometimes frightening. It seems when it comes to The Post, our ministers stop thinking, stop reasoning – anger, hatred and sometimes even envy consumes them. The lawyers who are journalists Chilembo is talking about are the editor and deputy editor of The Post. These are the only practising lawyers who are also practising journalism in Zambia. We wish there were many more such journalists in most of our newsrooms. And we encourage all our fellow journalists to as far as possible as they can study law because it is very important to the practise of journalism.

Everything that we report on or about is regulated by a law. We did not study law to abandon journalism. We studied law to become better journalists. And a better journalist is one who understands the law of the land and the rights of every citizen under that law. We are not in any way opposed to the protection of the legal rights of every citizen of this country and every person who finds himself or herself in this country. After all, to be admitted to the Zambian bar, the two top most editors of this newspaper had to take oath to uphold the Constitution.

We sincerely believe that there are enough laws in our statute books and common law as practised by our courts to reasonably protect the rights and reputations of all our people. And we have a duty to protect both the reputations of individuals and the freedom of the press. We have always fought for both and the two are not mutually exclusive.

But what must be understood clearly is that journalism is not just a profession like any other profession such as law, medicine, accounting, economics, engineering, marketing and so on and so forth. Journalism is the exercise by occupation of the right to free expression available to every citizen of our country under the Constitution. That right, being available to all, cannot in principle be withdrawn from a few by any system of regulation or ‘self-regulation’, licensing or professional registration.

Clearly, it is not a shortage of laws regulating the media that the government is worried about. There are more than enough laws. And how many times have we been arrested and prosecuted under such laws? How many times have we been with the government to court on the basis of these laws? The truth is they have failed to secure what they want under this myriad of laws. Every time we have been to court with them, they have lost. Now they want to resort to kangaroo courts of the Media Council of Zambia (MECOZ) to secure what they have failed to get in the courts of law. They are just wasting their time. It won’t work because all that we have done has been within the law. We will always practise our journalism within the law. And we will endeavour at all times to respect the rights of others. But if we fall short, we should face the temerity of our actions. Those offended should feel free to take us to court. But we will never hesitate to apologise for, and correct, any inaccuracies and libellous stories that we may carry.