It’s sad govt wants to suffocate freedom of information - Fr Miha

It’s sad govt wants to suffocate freedom of information - Fr Miha
By Margaret Mtonga and Chibaula Silwamba
Wed 06 Jan. 2010, 04:00 CAT

THE MMD government wants to impose statutory regulation of the media because they have seen that Zambians have lost confidence in their governance, Mission Press director Fr Drevensek Miha has said.

And Patriotic Front (PF) spokesperson Given Lubinda has charged that President Rupiah Banda has abdicated his powers to Vice-President George Kunda who is now a defacto President of Zambia.

In an interview yesterday, Fr Miha said it was sad that the President Banda-led government was so much geared to suffocate the freedom of information in the country.

“George Kunda and Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapawasa are busy working hard to ensure that the democratic tendencies of our country are done away with. This is very unfortunate. You cannot have a minister of information who is in the forefront advocating for statutory regulation of the media,” Fr Miha said. “Shikapawasa knows very well that this law that they intend to pass will surely affect the right of individuals to express and access information.”

Fr Miha said it was clear that Lt Gen Shikapawasa and George Kunda were the mastermind of statutory media regulation because they wanted to protect their jobs and please President Banda.

“Why should the government insist on statutory regulation of the media? I smell a rat and that rat is that the government wants to hide a lot of wrongs that they have done in their tenure of office and want to find means and ways of suppressing access to that information. They think by so doing they will win the 2011 elections. They will not win even if they impose this statutory regulation of the media,” Fr Miha said.

He said it was important for the government to leave the media to work in a self-regulatory way.
“I would like to tell George and Ronnie to shut up and not give the people of Zambia statutory regulation of the media. Who are they to start choosing for the Zambians?” asked Fr Miha. “I would like to warn the government that they will not achieve their mission,”

And in an interview, Lubinda said Vice-President Kunda was a very sly man.
“Zambians must realise that Rupiah Banda has got nothing to do with the governance of Zambia, totally. George Kunda is the defacto President of Zambia,” Lubinda said. “It is George Kunda who is governing this country. That is the reason for the arrogance you see in George Kunda because one Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda is just gallivanting without knowing what is happening in his country.”

Lubinda said President Banda did not even know some of the decisions that Vice-President Kunda was unilaterally making without his input.

“The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing; this is the reason for the numerous contradictions between the President and the Vice-President,” Lubinda said.

“If you follow all the contradictions that have been exposed, George Kunda ends up taking the order of the day. Whenever there is a contradiction between George Kunda and Rupiah Banda, the one that ends up winning is George Kunda, not the boss.”