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Without press freedom, people are doomed to repeat mistakes – Booth

Without press freedom, people are doomed to repeat mistakes – Booth
By Mutale Kapekele
Tue 15 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

United States Ambassador to Zambia Donald Booth yesterday said without press freedom, people are doomed to repeat mistakes. And information minister Ronnie Shikapwasha yesterday said the government will stick to the six months ultimatum given to the media to set up a self-regulatory body.

Speaking at the media capacity building and awareness workshop on self-regulation in Lusaka yesterday, Ambassador Booth said some people may not want to know about the sometimes unpleasant realities of the world.

“But without access to information and media freedom, people are doomed to repeat their mistakes,” Ambassador Booth said.

He said freedom of the press; speech and expression were the life-blood of democracy.

“The day we, as enlightened citizens of the world, stop talking about the most basic principles of democracy is the day that we jeopardise free society,” Ambassador Booth said.

“Without freedom of the press, average hard-working people would never know about the true horrors of war, of people yearning to be free and about government, business and civil society leaders who abuse their positions of trust.”

He said truly democratic countries were filled with many voices who expressed different and even contrary ideas and opinions.

“Democracy, by its very definition, implies respect for diversity, a diversity of opinions, ethnicities and religion,” Ambassador Booth said. “Our challenge is to defend our individual rights in a way that preserves the integrity of our societal values.”

Ambassador Booth said editors faced their own unique set of challenges as they sought to balance the demand for their audiences, advertisers and stakeholders with the ethics of journalism.

“Through what you (editors) write, edit, publish, journalism professionals propagate entire generations of thoughtful readers and viewers who learn to question the world around them and to think critically about the role they should play in their community,” said Ambassador Booth.

But Shikapwasha said the government would introduce a draft bill to Parliament if the media failed to honor the six months ultimatum which ends on December 31.

“When media representatives called on the Vice-President to express displeasure about attacks on media personnel sometime this year, the government asked the media representatives how long it was going to take them to check the glaring unethical excesses that were causing anger among political party cadres that were attacking them,” Shikapwasha said.

“The media representatives categorically responded that the media were ready for a self-regulating mechanism which would be ready within three months. The government felt that the time was too short and suggested that six months would be ideal. The government will keep its part of the bargain and its promise, if the media practitioners do not keep their promise.”

Shikapwasha said the government had been sincere and patient with the media and had no ill-intention towards them.

“The government has never had any ill-intentions against the press and if we go ahead to table a draft bill to Parliament, it is not because we want to suppress the press,” he said.

“The country has waited for ten years for the media to bring about a credible self regulatory mechanism. Zambia cannot afford to remain without media conduct and performance benchmarks.”

Shikapwasha said the government was interested in a mechanism that protected and enhanced freedom of the media, while ensuring that the freedom did not infringe upon the freedom and rights of the citizens and others in the country. He said it was in the public interest that those who enjoyed freedom of expression in the media industry had a mechanism that they all respected and one that would censure those who might abuse their freedom.

“Judging from the public reaction to the concerns about the conduct of some media houses, it is clear that there is need to rebuild public confidence in the media,” Shikapwasha said.

“The case of Mr Kalusha Bwalya, who is not a party cadre, makes sad reading but above all speaks volumes about the need to rebuild confidence in the media. Every day we drag our feet in the instituting of a credible mechanism, the resultant return is the rapid erosion of this public confidence.”

Recently, Bwalya slapped Post sports journalist in South Africa. Shikapwasha said Zambia risked being plunged into civil war should the media fail to regulate itself as was almost the case in 2006.

“In 2006, as the country approached elections, there was an unprecedented upsurge of the worst unprofessional and unethical media reporting this country has ever witnessed,” Shikapwasha said. “Such unprofessional reporting most people agreed that the country was at the brink of national wide chaos.

National peace came under severe risk as a result of an insensitive media, politically motivated media, unprofessional with regard to ethics. Lies were peddled by the media and fabrications were the order of the day. The public wondered whether there was any code of conduct for the media.”

Shikapwasha said the result of the unprofessional conduct of the media was violent attacks from political party cadres.

“Our country started witnessing violence against journalists which was a very disturbing phenomenon to the government,” Shikapwasha said. “It was generally established that the cause of the violence was that political party cadres were unhappy with the way their leaders were being reflected in the press. The cadres felt their leaders were being insulted and violence was a form of protest.”

Shikapwasha said the government hoped that the media would come up with an independent and effective complaints body through which aggrieved people could have their complaints addressed.

“It has been the concern of government that without a regulatory mechanism, law abiding people will be forced to go to court to seek legal redress, a path that is very costly. Most of our people cannot afford a lawyer,” Shikapwasha said. “In order to move forward, I call upon the media bodies to work with the government as we share one common interest and that is to develop mother Zambia.”

Shikapwasha said the major common interest for the media and the government should be the fight against poverty which was a threat to many people.

“It is not helpful to the people of Zambia to have a media industry that directs all its energies towards politics and creating enmity among the people. I implore the media in the country on interviewing sources that have developmental ideas and not those who only insult others. Insults make good reading only to those with depraved minds but will never bring development.”

Shikapwasha advised the media to rethink their role in poverty reduction and other national threats as their best guide as they tackled the issue of regulation. He also called on the media to rid itself of all those who masquerade as journalists as they gave a bad name to the media.

And speaking earlier, Press Association of Zambia president Andrew Sakala said their was no need for the government to introduce statutory regulation as the country had enough laws for all those who felt aggrieved by the media.

Labels: DONALD BOOTH, REGULATION, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA

posted by MrK @ 7:28 AM