Maravi

Journalists vow to march to State House tomorrow

Journalists vow to march to State House tomorrow
Written by George Chellah
Thursday, August 06, 2009 5:31:50 AM

THE media bodies have vowed to proceed with the planned peaceful march to State House despite President Rupiah Banda's absence. The media bodies that intend to march to State House tomorrow include the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA), Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia, Zambian Union of Journalists (ZUJ) PANOS Institute Southern Africa, Press Freedom Committee of The Post (PfC) and the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC).

In a joint statement issued by MISA-Zambia chairperson Henry Kabwe yesterday, the media bodies insisted that they would proceed with their march to State House.

"PAZA, MISA-Zambia, ZUJ, PANOS, PfC, UNIC and all other media associations and various stakeholders will proceed with the peaceful march to State House to express their concerns on the state of the media environment in Zambia despite the absence of His Excellency President Rupiah Banda," Kabwe stated.

"The media associations will present the petition to any person the President will choose to represent him to receive the petition from the media associations on his behalf. The media have deliberately chosen to seek the intervention of the father of the nation over the continued beating of journalists by cadres and other media issues because these issues have this far not been adequately addressed."

He stated that the media had been calling for action from relevant authorities concerning the beating of journalists by cadres.

"But not much effort has been made to address this situation. The perpetrators of these criminal acts against journalists have not faced justice for their behaviour as they have not been apprehended and prosecuted. This has set a bad precedence which we fear may become worse as the 2011 elections approach," said Kabwe.

"We do not wish to have journalists' lives threatened by elements who appear to have acquired licence to harm media practitioners at will. We will therefore proceed with our march as intended to express our concerns and request the highest authority in Zambia to address this problem. We call upon all those who would like to join the media to undertake the march to do so. The attire for the march is black and red headbands."

Labels: CHANSA KABWELA, MISA, PAZ, the pose, ZUJ

posted by MrK @ 4:32 AM