Maravi

Kunda needs media freedom more than anyone else - Prof Hansungule

Kunda needs media freedom more than anyone else - Prof Hansungule
By Ernest Chanda
Fri 01 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT [

Professor of human rights law Michelo Hansungule has said Vice-President George Kunda needs media freedom more than anyone else. In an interview from his base in Pretoria, Prof Hansungule reminded Vice-President Kunda of the realities he would face if he left office and tried to speak through controlled media.

“Media freedom is a natural right. The state does not legislate freedom. Freedom came before the state and certainly before George Kunda was recruited into government by late president Levy Mwanawasa. A natural right is not subject to state legislation, however powerful the state,” Prof Hansungule said.

“Vice-President Kunda has no jurisdiction to impose anti-people media laws on Zambians. Maybe he has not been reminded before, no one besides President Banda appointed him to the Vice-Presidency.

In fact, Vice-President Kunda needs media freedom more than anyone else. Vice-President and minister of justice George Kunda will learn this when he leaves office offices, as he will learn shortly. Once you are in office, the next step is to come out and it will happen to the current Vice-President and Minister of Justice. African leaders must strive to leave the world better than they found it.”

Prof Hansungule said self-regulation of the media was the general practice in all democracies around the world. He said all Zambia needed most was to deepen media and other freedoms in order to enhance good governance.

“Zambia needs to develop the media into a truly independent mouthpiece of the people. We need a truly biting media which barks authorities irritatingly and ceaselessly, more especially in safeguarding rights. It is important Zambia legislates the right to information, including personal information in the hands of the state,” Prof Hansungule said. “People should feel free and freer to approach government demanding for information in its custody.

There is therefore no need to subject the natural right to information to expansive claw back clauses, which effectively amount to denial of that right.
“In all democracies, the media regulates itself. Self-regulation and not regulation by the Vice-President is the rule of media practice.

It is utterly wrong for the government in our case, for the almighty Vice-President and Minister of Justice George Kunda to decide what we should not read on Sunday, who should write the editorial, what question a journalist should ask President Banda, etc. We want and we have the natural right to read free information. George Kunda and President Banda's information they can give to their cadres; it's fine that way. But they have no right, absolutely none, to dictate information and how it should be disseminated.”

Prof Hansungule challenged information minister Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha to resign if he were not comfortable with media freedom.

“If the media does not effectively regulate itself, there are courts. Anyone who feels unfairly treated by the media has a right to go to court and complain and this is where George Kunda should have been putting his attention, how to empower the vulnerable have effective access to court and how to make the courts efficient in dispensing this and other justice!” Prof Hansungule said. “We want the media to write and report about everything that goes on at State House and at Mfuwe.

Every little thing that takes place among our politicians should be reported freely by our young men and women because it is our right to know. If minister Shikapwasha does not like this, resign sir; go into retirement where you were. Instead of what Vice-President George Kunda is trying to do, the law should be strengthened to protect journalists and the journalism profession so that besides merely reporting, it can dig out all the dirt.”

Prof Hansungule said Vice-President Kunda would not survive in a truly independent media going by his stifling of the little media freedom that exists in Zambia.

“There is a lot of dirt in society especially in corridors of power. The Constitution guarantees our right to know all the dirt there is. We should not only know. In fact, we don't need to know or see on television that President Banda has gone to Mfuwe or has returned. Democracy is built on the basis of several dissenting voices and opinions.

We all know that an essential aspect of democracy is freedom. Freedom from state control in our case in Zambia freedom from the unbridled control of the media by Vice President George Kunda is the definition by which democracy is known,” said Prof Hansungule.

“I often wonder how George Kunda would manage as Vice-President in a free country with a thriving press. I bet he cannot last seconds. Think of a free country and George Kunda not with one free paper, radio or television but with several screaming headlines! It would be a terrible, terrible dream for him to find himself in.”

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA, MICHELO HASUNGULE

posted by MrK @ 10:41 AM