Maravi

Kunda pushes for a punitive media bill

Kunda pushes for a punitive media bill
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wed 23 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

THE government has come up with a punitive media bill. According to sources in the Ministry of Justice, the bill is primarily being driven by Vice-President and Justice Minister George Kunda who is said to have vested interest in the matter in his continued quest to fix The Post and its editor Fred M'membe.

The sources said sometime back, the Ministry of Justice had come up with the media bill that was sent to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services for scrutiny by stakeholders.

Commenting on Vice-President Kunda's assertions that there was a curtail by opposition political parties, TIZ and Post editor Fred M'membe to control the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and other constitutional offices, Sata said there was nothing treasonable about calling for Mchenga's resignation for his failure to uphold the Republican Constitution.

He said it was in fact Vice-President Kunda and Mchenga who were committing a bigger offence by protecting criminals, who included former president Frederick Chiluba.

“He George Kunda is frustrated. He doesn't know which way to go. The man is in very big problems now. He has run out of answers. He is behaving like a rabid dog. He doesn't know who to attack because at the moment the biggest problem which he has, he has been caught in his web of lies,” Sata said.

He said President Banda, Vice-President Kunda and Mchenga's days were numbered, saying they would not go far in hiding crimes under the DPP's carpet.

He said President Banda's government was trying hard to defend Mchenga because they were aware that more crimes would be revealed once the DPP was out of office.

“He is not only defending Mchenga's criminality but all the criminals including Chiluba, because under Mchenga's carpet there are so many criminals. We are going to force Mchenga out just like we forced Mukelabai Mukelabai,” Sata said. On Vice-President Kunda's assertions that M'membe wanted to take over state power, Sata said this was not the first time M'membe was being accused because he was also accused of trying to overthrow the government in 2002.

“In 2006 when I said I was going to support Chiluba, Fred attacked me and they never attacked M'membe. They even stopped talking about him,” Sata said.

On Vice-President Kunda's assertion that the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) president Stephen Lungu had betrayed his client, President Banda, Sata said Lungu was not elected LAZ president to protect the interests of President Banda but the Zambian people.

He said LAZ should be an impartial organisation and should speak out when matters were not going right in the nation.

“All of us are clients of LAZ so the legal profession is to advise the client impartially and that's what LAZ is doing. So there is nothing treasonable,” said Sata.

Sata asked Mchenga to resign in order to save the little that was left of his personal and professional integrity.

And Lifuka asked Vice-President Kunda to face the argument on the DPP squarely rather than resorting to wholesale attacks on individuals and organisations. He said Vice-President Kunda should consider the merits of why people had demanded for Mchenga's resignation.

“I think the concerns are being raised given the way the DPP has conducted himself over a number of years, and most specifically in the handling of the FTJ Chiluba case. So that is what he should have answered to squarely,” Lifuka said.

Lifuka said Vice-President Kunda was attacking people but would be the same person to complain when the people he was attacking hit back. He said Vice-President Kunda had said a lot of things about TIZ but he should be cautious because one day he would be asked to prove what he said.

Lifuka said TIZ was an objective organisation and would not stop talking just because Vice-President Kunda felt uncomfortable.

On Vice-President Kunda's continued use of the word treason, Lifuka said the Vice-President always used the word, saying he did the same when he said that any road map towards the enactment of the Constitution other than the government's roadmap amounted to treason.

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA, MEDIA, REGULATION

posted by MrK @ 4:25 AM