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Govt insincere over push to regulate media - Mwila

Govt insincere over push to regulate media - Mwila
By Patson Chilemba
Tue 20 July 2010, 14:50 CAT

Information and broadcasting services minister Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha
ZAMBIA Union for Broadcasters and Information Disseminators (ZUBID) president Simon Mwila has said the government is being insincere over their push to regulate the media through statute.

And Post managing editor Amos Malupenga said the government wants to regulate the media in order to instil fear in the journalists.

Featuring on ZNBC’s Open Line programme on Monday, Mwila said the work of journalists was different from that of other professionals because journalists exposed that which people, especially politicians, wanted hidden.

“And most of the times you know that our politicians are the ones that we want to mirror because they are public people and we want to mirror their activities. Now because of that, that’s why Amos referred to that, that they are going to look at you and say ‘time shall come for you to renew your practicing licence and we shall fix you’,” he said.

Mwila narrated how the roadmap for the current voluntary self regulation process through Zambia Media Ethics Council (ZAMEC) started.

He said Vice-President George Kunda, information minister Ronnie Shikapwasha, justice deputy minister Todd Chilembo and Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde attended the meeting at which the issue was discussed and the media bodies promised to get back to them.

Mwila said the media bodies followed that roadmap and briefed Lieutenant General Shikapwasha regularly until the day ZAMEC held its conference.

“The minister was totally with us and always said he was very, very happy and pleased with the manner we were progressing. But we were taken aback and disappointed when the minister, in the midst of the conference, a caucus where people are suppose to come up with a decision that’s when he says ‘as government, we don’t agree’,” Mwila narrated.

“Then we asked, we said ‘no, I think there is insincerity in government’ because if they had issues prior to this conference they could have told us so that we can sit down on the round table and iron out areas where they thought ZAMEC could be strengthened.”

And Malupenga said the government was pushing for statutory regulation because they wanted punitive actions to be taken against the media.

He said that was why they had rubbished ZAMEC because as far as they were concern, ZAMEC did not have the teeth to bite.

Malupenga cited the draft bill which was almost taken to Parliament for ratification, saying it contained provisions for imprisonment.

“Or my practicing licence which they are proposing to introduce can be revoked any time of the year and it is subject to renewal every year. For me to be appointed as editor the minister has to approve,” he said.

Malupenga said self regulation basically entailed that media practitioners would be responsible to the public and offered the quickest way for resolving differences with the public.

He said ZAMEC was even proposing some minimal damages.

Malupenga said statutory regulation was not a licence from making mistakes, because even those who were regulated by statute like doctors were still being punished for making mistakes.
“That is why we are saying we need to regulate ourselves. Government is not interested in self regulation for the simple reason that they are interested in sending journalists to jail. And the simple reason is to instil fear in the journalist so that the journalist does not tell the story as it should be,” Malupenga said.

“If I know that every year I have to renew a licence, my appointment as editor should be approved by the minister, what kind of editor do you want me to be? Because I will always be interested to secure my renewal come December.”

But former president Frederick Chiluba’s spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba said the draft media bill which Vice-President Kunda wanted to take to Parliament could not be referred to because it was unofficial.

He said the government wanted to introduce statutory self regulation where the practitioners come up with their own draft and the ministers take it to Parliament on their behalf.

Mwamba said there was mutual suspicion in Zambia where the practitioners thought their document could be tampered with by the time it reached Parliament.

However, media academician Gerald Mwale said self regulation did not entail that journalists would operate outside the law.

On the same issue, Malupenga disagreed with Mwamba’s position.

“You should have done well to call the government representative because Emmanuel here is ending up defending the government which should not be the case,” he said.

Malupenga said his remarks on the draft media bill were not out of his creation.

He explained that the government last year gave the media a six-months ultimatum to come up with their own regulatory framework, while they secretly developed their own bill.

Malupenga said the government only slowed down after their document was leaked to the public.

He said there was unity now in the media to achieve what the Media Ethics Council of Zambia (MECOZ) failed to accomplish.

Malupenga said the government was trying to create a picture that there was division in the media in order to justify their push for statutory regulation.

He said the media could come up with a good idea, but Parliament would subject that issue to a debate as it was not a rubberstamp.

Malupenga said there could never be statutory self regulation because Parliament would have the final say over the issue.
“MMD has more members, so they can always play things according to their liking…if they see there is no teeth to bite, they will insert the teeth there,” said Malupenga.

Mwale said the scenario in Kenya could not be likened to what the government wanted to do in Zambia because none of the media organisations in that country was owned by the government.

Labels: AMOS MALUPENGA, PRESS FREEDOM, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA, SIMON MWILA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 9:35 AM