Maravi

Work professionally, Sakala advises journalists

Work professionally, Sakala advises journalists
By Masuzyo Chakwe and Mwala Kalaluka
Tue 04 May 2010, 04:00 CAT

PRESS Association of Zambia (PAZA) president Andrew Sakala has appealed to journalists to work professionally and objectively so that the government does not find an opportunity to pass unnecessary laws that impede on media freedom.

And Association of Zambian Diocesean Catholic Clergy (AZADCC) president Fr Cletus Mwiila yesterday said the enemy of press freedom in the country is a small group of people that want to curtail information from reaching the citizens.

Commenting on the World Press Freedom Day which fell yesterday under the theme The right to know: Access to information, Sakala said it was important that journalists operated professionally so that they could win the confidence of the public.

“It is important that journalists operate professionally so that the government does not take advantage and start accusing the media of being unprofessional and thereby begin to pass unnecessary laws that impede on the media,” Sakala said.

He urged the public to support media laws as the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) would very soon publish a draft constitution.

“We want to urge the public and media practitioners to ensure that the provisions on the media in the draft constitution are those that will promote media freedom,” he said.

Sakala urged the public and the media to take a keen interest in the draft constitution and submit to the NCC so that it could pass laws favourable to media freedom.

He also said information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha had not categorically stated when the government would take the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill to Parliament.

Sakala said the right to access information was anchored on the FoI law.

He urged the government to take the Bill to Parliament and pass the law because access to information depended on it.

“We hope that at the next sitting of Parliament, the government will take it back. Shikapwasha at the United Nations made a commitment that the Zambian government is committed to promoting a free media so he should match his words with deeds,” he said.

Sakala condemned the violence against journalists and urged political leaders to refrain their cadres from attacking journalists.

He said it was unfortunate that in the past year, there had been an increase on journalists’ attacks.

However, Sakala hoped that the public and politicians would desist from attacking journalists.

And Fr Mwiila said it was the citizenry that suffered if the media were not given sufficient freedom within which to operate.

“World Press Freedom Day for me is a very important moment for the media in the world,” Fr Mwiila said. “And all the important things that go together with development in any given nation. There can be no development in any given nation where there is no development because when we are talking of development today we should be talking about press freedom.”

Fr Mwiila said given what the country’s journalists went through to inform the nation, they should be supported to work in a free environment.

“We want to argue that… unless you have an informed nation you can’t talk about development,” he said. “Development is borne from what people are made to know and how they are helped to discuss what they know and turn it into positive living.”

Fr Mwiila said what he sees as an enemy of press freedom in Zambia was the hegemony that seemed to make people not to be aware of happenings in the nation, especially if they get into certain offices, which they wanted to protect.

“Hegemony is a small group of people who are in the offices who think no one else should be made aware unless they are within that circle,” Fr Mwiila said. “If you are from the other side then you are wrong.”

Fr Mwiila said in an environment where the media was free the press would be used to harness all the issues in order to allow many people to participate in the governance of the country.

“To realize all these the writers or scribes should be able to be given freedom to access to information so that the citizens can also be informed,” said Fr Mwiila.

Labels: ANDREW SAKALA, CLETUS MWIILA, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL, JOURNALISM, PAZA, WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

posted by MrK @ 2:56 PM