Maravi

Give media chance to regulate themselves - Kibazo

Give media chance to regulate themselves - Kibazo
By Joe Kaunda
Sat 19 June 2010, 04:10 CAT

FORMER communications director at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London Joel Kibazo has urged the government to give the Zambian media chance to regulate themselves before any move to impose statutory media regulation.

And Kibazo, a veteran journalist and chief judge at the CNN MultiChoice media awards, has challenged Zambian journalists to fully participate in the annual prestigious awards if their work is to win continental and international recognition among their peers.

Commenting on the government’s insistence that Zambia’s media self regulatory framework was insufficient, Kibazo stated that the approach by the Zambian government through information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha already appeared very suspicious.

“Let the government hold back and see how it’s going to work. If it does not work then it legitimises the government position. But first let the media police themselves,” Kibazo advised.

He stated that experience around the world had shown that whenever government did intervene in the process of media self regulation the basis was on grounds of blocking the media from reporting on its officials or activities.

However, he cautioned the media against abusing press freedom but insisted on the need for self regulation.

“You need to ask yourself, am I doing this simply to embarrass someone or is it to keep leaders in check and accountable to the society,” Kibazo said.

Earlier in an interview at the recently held 2010 edition of the awards in Uganda’s capital Kampala, Kibazo said despite noticing some good work being done by journalists in Zambia including other countries, there was need for the scribes to actually enter the competition.

He said it would be unfair for the panel of judges to start picking entries when the journalists had not entered their work.

Kibazo said the judging panel had seen tremendous improvements in terms of quality entries and levels of participation in the awards, which he has presided over for the last 13 years.

“I have seen a lot of great articles that deserve to participate but the journalists just don’t put in,” he said. “It is entirely up to the journalists to give us the work, but every year we are seeing the number of entries increasing. Like this year we had over 2,000 entries and had to go through each and every entry.”

And MultiChoice Zambia spokesperson Marlon Kananda echoed Kibazo’s call for the participation of the Zambian media in the prestigious annual awards

“Every year we go out to encourage the media practitioners to submit their work. So the question to the media is why are they not entering,” he asked, adding that the awards were meant to reward excellence in journalism in Africa.

Kananda said MultiChoice had provided a platform through which the media could showcase its good works and be rewarded for excellence.

This year’s event saw Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni officiating as guest of honour and saw South Africa’s Samantha Rogers emerging as overall winner for the second time, for a documentary on the hunting and killing of albinos for body parts in Tanzania.

Labels: JOEL KIBAZO, JOURNALISM, MEDIA, REGULATION

posted by MrK @ 2:30 PM