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MECOZ is highly compromised – Kanyama

MECOZ is highly compromised – Kanyama
Written by Ernest Chanda
Thursday, May 14, 2009 4:12:57 PM

The administration of Media Council of Zambia (MECOZ) is highly compromised because there are no salaries for secretariat staff, MECOZ board member Chibamba Kanyama had said. Appearing before a parliamentary committee on information and broadcasting services yesterday, Kanyama submitted that MECOZ’s performance was below par.

“In relation to the performance of MECOZ, I would say it’s below par. I think we must admit that we haven’t done as much as expected. One, we have had financial difficulties that have affected our operations. We haven’t been meeting as members of the board and that has posed a weakness in terms of administration.

The secretariat is very weak; we’ve got no salaries for the secretariat,” submitted Kanyama. “In other words, the administration is highly compromised. And that affects governance. We haven’t been able to call for an AGM [Annual General Meeting] to report back to our members. We are not even able to account for our actions or our inactions before our members. And this has impacted on the attainment of the mission, the vision and the objectives of MECOZ.”

And Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) acting director general Juliana Mwila called for a law that will compel journalists to join MECOZ.

Mwila said compelling journalists to join MECOZ would instill professionalism in the media industry.

“The media council needs adequate funding that will enable it carry out more sensitisation campaigns and run an effective secretariat to coordinate its activities. There is need to ensure that journalists and institutions pay their membership fees. There is also need to make it mandatory for journalists practicing in Zambia to belong to MECOZ. This will be done in the interest that journalism is a profession like other professions such as lawyers who have (LAZ) and doctors who belong to the Medical Association of Zambia. There is need to institute a law to compel all journalists to belong to MECOZ while those refusing to subscribe should not be allowed to practice,” Mwila submitted.

But Lusaka Central member of parliament Dr Guy Scott advised Mwila to be more concerned with ZNBC-related issues rather than MECOZ.

“Why not address what is relevant to you? Your reporting is not balanced and we have examples to give. Can you please tell us how you are going to improve yourselves rather than talk about MECOZ?” he asked.

In response, Mwila maintained that ZNBC had provided fair coverage in most instances.

“We have tried our best to give fair coverage and records are there to show. We have evidence to prove our fairness and our popularity. Just last week when an item was run on the news that I had been appointed ZNBC acting director general, people were calling me to ask about that. To me this shows that ZNBC is popular,” she said.

Mwila said before, during and after elections, the posture of the media had been divided.

“Elections are a very emotional subject because of what is at stake. The posture of the media has been divided with each institution being perceived to have a preferred party or candidate(s). What has been most damaging is the tone and language used by some media during the elections. This has tended to generate toxic politics and antagonise one group against another,” Mwila submitted. “Generally, the media did not follow the electoral code of conduct. Some sections of the media deliberately ignored the electoral code of conduct which lays the ground rules for coverage of elections. There was unequal coverage of candidates in the election. What is important for the media is to follow the code of conduct without exception.”

And MECOZ chairperson Sr Rose Nyondo submitted that MECOZ was tightening up its constitution to compel all journalists to join.

“The old MECOZ is weak and members have realised that this needs to change as soon as possible. A new constitution is already in draft form. Members of MECOZ looked through the draft and made further amendments…”

She said what should be done to ensure all media organisations join MECOZ was to ensure that the MECOZ constitution was tightened to compel all media practitioners join the organisation and that MECOZ needs to be linked to a donor organisation who could fund it for a minimum of three years. This will help the organisation to stabilise in terms of administration and publicity programmes. She said such support would assist MECOZ to visit all rural-based media organisations and expand on its number of offices.

Sr Nyondo submitted that MECOZ had discussed with the Ministry of Information on possibilities of giving the mandate to MECOZ to accredit all journalists in the country.

“As discussed with the former minister [of Information] Hon [Mike] Mulongoti and the current minister Hon Shikapwasha at the formal meetings where MECOZ made curtsey visits, it was suggested that we give MECOZ the mandate of media journalist accreditation. In this way, no journalist or media house can practice without being a member of MECOZ,” she submitted.

And Sr Nyondo submitted that the media in Zambia did not provide balanced coverage in last year’s presidential election.

“From the last special elections of 2008, there is no Zambian media house that can boast that they did a clean, honest and professional coverage of the events before, during and after elections. The state-owned media tried their best to be fair, but in most instances they supported the MMD. The private media, in particular The Post, supported the opposition. The sacrificial lamb was the general public or the electorate that was starved of free, fair and unbiased information.”

Sr Nyondo said as a result, MECOZ had drawn up a programme to conduct workshops in order to train journalists on election reporting.

“In preparation for the 2011elections, MECOZ has lined up a series of workshops for all stakeholders, including local authorities who are part of the audience of the community media houses who were the majority in abrogating media ethics and election procedures. These preparatory election workshops will be run in conjunction with the Electoral Commission of Zambia. A sponsor has [is] yet to be found.” she submitted.

Asked by Dr Scott on how MECOZ board members appointed themselves and where they drew their mandate from, Sr Nyondo said they were appointed by the member organisations, and that is where they drew power from.

But Itezhi-Tezhi member of parliament Godfrey Beene insisted that MECOZ should dissolve itself because of the numerous problems it faced as admitted by the board members.

And committee chairperson Moses Muteteka asked Sr Nyondo to admit that because of their poor performance, MECOZ had in fact contributed to the instability in the media industry.

In response, Sr Nyondo said MECOZ could not be blamed for failures of individual media houses.

“Yes, there are problems in the industry. But we cannot be blamed entirely for that. The constitution had a big weakness. According to our constitution, when we adjudicate, we don’t punish. So we sent it back to our lawyers so that we can have teeth to deal with members who are found wanting,” submitted Sr. Nyondo.

Labels: CHIBAMBA KANYAMA, MECOZ

posted by MrK @ 3:15 PM