Zambians must reject statutory media regulation – Habasonda

Zambians must reject statutory media regulation – Habasonda
Written by George Chellah in Lusaka and Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 3:45:13 PM

SOUTHERN African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) executive director Lee Habasonda yesterday urged Zambians to reject statutory regulation of the media.And Patriotic Front spokesperson Given Lubinda has accused Vice-President George Kunda and the MMD of trying to intimidate The Post newspaper through the regulation of the media. In an interview, Habasonda dismissed the government's intentions to regulate the media.

“Government's intention to regulate the media is a very systematic scheme to kill dissenting views in the country,” he said.

He said it was clear that the government wanted to regulate every section of society they saw as a challenge.

“While they are talking about regulating the media, they are also talking about regulating the civil society organisations. Before we know it, Zambia will not have democratic space for any dissenting views,” Habasonda said.

“We will be closing the remaining space for democratic progression. Media regulation along with civil society regulation is something which they want to do without anybody raising any concern.”

Habasonda said his organisation was concerned with the government's intention to regulate the media.

“We are very worried because it will affect issues of accountability, good governance and human rights violations,” Habasonda said. ìIt is definitely a big source of conflict for the Rupiah Banda regime. It appears they want to regulate every section of society they see as a challenge.î

He said the Zambian media had enjoyed some space in the past 15 years or so.

“Zambia enjoys good credentials not only in the region but even in Europe. Now with this violence against journalists, self-censorship in the state media and media regulation, these are things that are painting Zambia as a country that is quickly slipping into a one party state dictatorship,î Habasonda said.

He said Zambians must reject the intended regulation of the media and civil society organisations.

“They must reject this subversion on their rights and freedoms. It’s really regrettable, there is need for this government to engage in genuine dialogue with the civil society and the media practitioners before they talk about regulation,” Habasonda said. “You can't impose a law on people and expect them to respect it. You are wasting time and resources.”

Several stakeholders have condemned the government's intentions for statutory regulation of the media.

Last Saturday, Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata said statutory regulation of the media was a repressive law, which was only targeted at the private media.

He said plans by information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha to regulate the media would not yield any positive results.

“They have failed to regulate the media before and they shall fail again. It's clear that they were targeting certain non-governmental organisations (NGO) on the NGO bill and they are also targeting not only The Post but the private media like Sky FM in Monze on the statutory regulation of the media,” said Sata.

And UPND president Hakainde Hichilema said statutory regulation of the media was part of the dictatorial tendencies President Rupiah Banda was bringing in the country so that journalists could easily be beaten and locked up on the basis of a false law.

In an interview, Hichilema said statutory regulation of the media was an action in desperation by the ruling party.

“The MMD government has managed to control the judiciary we all know that, where the President is inferring with the judicial process. Issuing statements ahead of critical judgments and he is not satisfied with that,î Hichilema said. ìIt is absolutely wrong and he is really inciting anarchy in the nation. He is not satisfied with that, he controls the executive and now the intentions of this regulation is to control the fourth estate, the media.î

He described the intentions to regulate the media as purely greedy.

“You can see what greed can do. When a political party becomes so greedy, they want to control every aspect of the society. We need the media to remain free,î Hichilema said. ìWe want our media to be free to remain free, we disagree with the approach being taken with regard to the regulation of the media, it is not well meant.”

Hichilema said the law was meant to fully gag society.

And during a public forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of The Post on the sustainability of the UPND-PF pact in Livingstone on Saturday, Lubinda said the pact would repeal all obnoxious laws aimed at intimidating the media once it takes over power from the MMD.

"The MMD is pushing laws, I want to pass a friendly warning, come 2011 the government of UPND-PF pact shall repeal all obnoxious laws which include the statutory regulation of the media. We have in Zambia today the Media Ethics Council of Zambia (MECOZ) that is a free body where all journalists can register, that is the body that is supposed to be regulating journalists. What George Kunda is saying is that ‘I’m giving you six months to come up with another self-regulatory system'. What is he talking about? I want to say to you that it is a well known factor to us all that George Kunda and the MMD are trying to intimidated the Post Newspapers, we all know that because it is only the Post who are not members of MECOZ, but my friend George Kunda, Zambia is bigger than you and Zambia is not even yours, it is for the future and we shall stand and defend the journalists, those in the private and public media, we shall defend them,î he said.

Lubinda added that the UPND-PF pact will not ask its members to become hooligans like the MMD.

“We shall not ask our members to be hooligans who are beating media personnel, we will not do that, however we will also not allow anyone to come up with bills that intimidate the operations of the media in Zambia, because it is the press that speaks on behalf of you the voiceless people, it is the press that speaks on behalf of the suffering majority of Zambians so George Kunda go and say whatever you want to...," Lubinda said.

And commenting on former president Frederick Chilubaís acquittal, Lubinda said the first thing President Banda did when he came into office was to call Chiluba and tell him that he was a damn good president.

"I want to say that Rupiah Banda's interference in the Chiluba case is very clear to all of us and he cannot lie. When the judge was making the ruling on the case at 13:00 hours, Rupiah Banda said there would be a very important ruling in court. How did he know? The man even said I'm happy that I'm not in Lusaka, had I been in Lusaka the press was going to say that I interfered in the ruling. What nonsense? Does one need to be in Lusaka to interfere? That ruling was written weeks before," he said.

Lubinda added that it was also clear that it was only in Zambia were a person facing criminal charges shared a high table with the head of state and the chief justice.