Maravi

Govt accepts media’s watchdog role, says Simbao

Govt accepts media’s watchdog role, says Simbao
By Agness Changala
Sun 20 June 2010, 04:01 CAT

HEALTH minister Kapembwa Simbao has said the government accepts the media’s role as the watchdog of society to ensure accountability on public resources. And Simbao has led a delegation to Geneva to clarify with the donors issues surrounding the funding regime towards health and HIV and AIDS programmes in Zambia.

Addressing the press on Friday, Simbao said the delegation would also hold talks with the Global Fund and UNAIDS on health and HIV and AIDS status in Zambia. He also said the media’s role as the watchdog of society should be based on evidence, objectivity and fair comment.

Simbao further appealed to the media to help the government development agenda by taking the interests of the poor as their own guiding principal in their work.

“It is a fact that Zambia like many developing countries is heavily dependant on external support for the implementation of major interventions including the HIV and AIDS sector which are manly funded by the Global Fund, US and Japanese governments and United Nations family and bilateral donors,” he said.

Simbao said he was not in any way suggesting that the media should tolerate a culture of “sweeping the dirt under the carpet” but they should instead be patriotic without compromising on truth.

He requested for help from the media to mobilise all Zambians to rally together in solidarity with the government as it opened its doors to more investments in the development effort.

Simabo said the role of opinion makers, the media inclusive, was more critical now than ever as the country tried to restore donor confidence on concrete actions to forestall any form of corruption in the entire public sector.

“Many of our external partners make strategic decisions based on partial information, distortions and untruths from various sources which unfortunately include some sections of the media,” Simbao said.

He said potential loss of support arising from imbalanced reports would affect the most vulnerable people in society.

Simbao said the patriotism and solidarity the government was asking for was not for its benefit but the general members of the public who desperately required services supported by cooperating partners.

Labels: DONORS, HIV/AIDS, KAPEMBWA SIMBAO, MEDIA, PRESS FREEDOM

posted by MrK @ 5:19 AM