Maravi

Mulongoti counsels Kunda over public media complaint

Mulongoti counsels Kunda over public media complaint
By Kombe Chimpinde
Tue 10 Jan. 2012, 13:55 CAT

MEDIA Freedom was not a necessity to George Kunda when he was vice-president because he had become a 'star', says Mike Mulongoti.

In an interview, Mulongoti, the former MMD chairperson for elections, said Kunda must not complain about not being covered by the public media because the time to taste his own medicine had come.

Mulongoti said he felt embarrassed about the lamentations of Kunda, his former workmate, because the former had muzzled the public media as a way to get at those that opposed and criticised the wrongdoing of the MMD government.

"Let me remind Kunda that time for Christmas is over and please let him keep quiet as opposed to lamenting in the manner that he is doing. At every occasion he used to be the first one to take the meal, today, he (Kunda) wants to complain. How about those who were in the queue at the back?" Mulongoti asked.

"What is good for the goose must be good for the gander. At the time Kunda was vice-president of Zambia, he did not think press freedom was a necessity. He continuously attacked the private press and more so The Post. During the run-up to the elections the public media was biased towards the MMD, a party of which he was a trustee, and vice-president of the Republic."

Mulongoti said at no time did Kunda talk about the need for balanced coverage of all political parties.

"He was like a star in the public media and all those of us who had contrary views were perceived to be villains," he explained.

Kunda recently held a briefing at which he attacked the public media "for being biased" in the coverage of political parties as well as what he termed the negative coverage of the MMD party members.

"This was very painful for those in the opposition, including the NGOs and churches but because the media was under the control of the MMD which was the political party in government. They (MMD) paid a deaf ear to these cries. The private media were however relentless in reporting the wrongdoing of MMD government and all those wrong doings," Mulongoti said.

He said Kunda had used the public media to get to political stardom when he was vice-president, stressing that time to be a star had come to an end.

"He (Kunda) must keep his cool and allow those (public media) whom him and the MMD government muzzled to exercise some freedom which they had longed for. He must be the last person to condemn the public media because they built him from nothing to something. He must be thankful because politically he was a nobody until the public media began to blow his trumpet," said Mulongoti.

"…The public media which were instructed to publish good things about the leadership are the same today who have a thirst to publish the truth and have joined the private press who were sincere in the first place in revealing the wrongdoing. He has had too many Christmases he enjoyed when the people of Zambia were crying. Now time has come for him, in fact this is just the beginning. This is the time he must taste what the ordinary Zambian who maintained him over the last years in comfort were feeling."

Kunda, when in government, pushed for a draconian law that sought statutory regulation of the media.

posted by MrK @ 7:03 PM