2,000 journalists to be trained on monitoring government expenditure
Time Posted: February 6, 2013 1:52 pm
The Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM), in conjunction with PANOS Institute Southern Africa, will soon embark on a project to train 2,000 journalists to monitor government expenditure in the health and education sectors.
ZAMCOM Director Oliver Kanene disclosed that the journalists will focus on how government funds on health and education infrastructure were spent.
Mr. Kanene said the reporters, who will all have to be based in Lusaka, will be empowered with smart phones that will enable them to access information on how much money government was spending on various projects in the two sectors.
He was speaking during a community radio station information and communication technologies (ICTs) training workshop for journalists in Lusaka today.
And Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) Director for Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Thomas Malama, said government and all members of the public play an important role in positively exploiting ICT for the betterment of society.
Mr. Malama said it was important for journalists to be acquainted with ICT as it was the most efficient information delivery vehicle.
He disclosed that ZICTA has so far embarked on a project to put up towers in several areas to improve access to internet services.
And PANOS Institute Southern Africa Executive Director Lillian Kiefer explained that the workshop was meant to enhance the ability of journalists in fulfilling their responsibilities using ICT tools.
Ms. Kiefer said community radio stations were an important tool in engaging government and communities on various matters.
ZANIS
Labels: CORRUPTION, JOURNALISM, PANOS, ZAMCOM
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Daka implores journalists to evaluate effectiveness of govt programmes
By Lenganji Sikapizye
Sun 31 Oct. 2010, 04:01 CAT
PETER Daka has implored journalists to use their skills to evaluate the effectiveness of government programmmes and hold it accountable. During the second Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) graduation ceremony in Lusaka on Friday, Daka who is science and technology minister said the mass media was an important part of development as it enhanced citizen participation in democracy.
“As government that is committed to transparency and accountability, we implore new journalists to use their skills and media platform to evaluate the effectiveness of government programmes and hold us accountable. This however should be done in an objective and fair manner,” he said.
He said the role of the media was to make citizens aware of the numerous projects and programmes the government embarked on to improve the quality of life.
“But if you create despondence with the story that brings shivers, know that your training has been fruitless,” he claimed.
And Daka said the ministry through the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVETA) was committed to improving the quality of training to ensure that colleges had acceptable training standards.
“The government is encouraging more players to get involved in training and also promote open distance and flexible learning,” he said.
And ZAMCOM board chairperson judge Flavia Chishimba revealed that the trust would before the end of this year invest US$ 30,000 in acquiring VSAT to facilitate e-learning programmes.
Labels: FLAVIA CHISHIMBA, PETER DAKA, TEVETA, ZAMCOM
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KK’s sermon on the media
By Editor
Sun 25 Oct. 2009, 04:00 CAT
When Dr Kenneth Kaunda speaks on any subject or issue, we pay a lot of attention to what he says. We meditate deeply over what Dr Kaunda says on any issue. This is so because this comrade has struggled a lot, has fought a lot, has experienced a lot, has suffered a lot and indeed he has seen a lot.
Dr Kaunda yesterday made a number of observations on the operations of the media generally and in particular in our country. And we agree with everything that he said.
This comrade has travelled 360 degrees on this score. There are times when he was persecuted by the media and there have also been times when his own government was the persecutor of the media.
During the independence struggle, the colonial press tried to create a monster out of Dr Kaunda by misrepresenting him as a human being and by attempting to distort his very noble cause. In short, Dr Kaunda and his comrades were not fairly and objectively covered by the colonial press.
There were attempts to set up media outlets that were supportive of Dr Kaunda and his cause. This media also had its own limitations. It was fair to Dr Kaunda and the independence struggle but it was a biased press whose objectivity in certain respects was questionable.
It did not take long after independence for Dr Kaunda’s government and party to assume hegemony over the media. That media covered them extensively and probably to the exclusion of their political opponents. It was a biased media that Dr Kaunda’s government ran. And it is this same media that successive governments since 1991 when Dr Kaunda left office have inherited. And they have run it the same way.
After Dr Kaunda left office, the media that he once controlled and used as a sword and shield was turned against him. It was used to try and discredit and humiliate him. The only media that came to his defence and that covered him fairly and objectively was the media that was outside his control when he was in power; the media that was opposed to his government. This is the media that sustained Dr Kaunda throughout the 10 years Frederick Chiluba was president of the Republic. It is also the same media that solidly defended his integrity throughout Levy Mwanawasa’s seven years as president.
Today there seems to be some favourable coverage of Dr Kaunda from the government media. It is not difficult to guess why. It is simply because of the good relation Dr Kaunda has with Rupiah Banda and his government. It is also because today Dr Kaunda does not publicly utter a word that is critical of Rupiah and even of his friends like Chiluba. This is the only reason the government media today appears to be favourable to Dr Kaunda. Clearly, Dr Kaunda has been subjected to everything good the media can do to an individual and to everything bad the media can do to a human being at various stages in his life.
We approach the issues Dr Kaunda has raised in a critical spirit, with a sense of history and renewed faith in the values that, for those who have become disenchanted in recent times, have become less important and bothersome.
However, we are very impressed by Dr Kaunda’s persuasive dissertation, an anthological poem, on the media and his reflections on its role.
The observations made by Dr Kaunda have reaffirmed our convictions on media issues and given us more arguments for our enthusiasm to defend the freedom of the press.
We hope that the Zambian people will find Dr Kaunda’s observations a stimulus to reflection and encouragement to preserving their hope in the cause of a free press that has never ceased to be legitimate.
Dr Kaunda’s observations have also helped us by confirming the need for the self-criticism that we have engaged in – or are obliged to engage in – in every reversal and in the shadows.
Effectively, Dr Kaunda has brilliantly indicated to us that it is possible to fight for a free and independent press that is fair, objective, just, while at the same time defending the dignity of every individual from being violated by such a press. We can achieve both without compromising on the other. This is so because the two are not mutually exclusive but are like two different sides of the same coin.
But Comrade KK will agree with us, given his experience in the independence struggle, that it is very difficult to establish a press that is truly fair and objective under a political environment that is not free and fair. The colonial press was a press of a highly divided society, a society of the oppressed and the oppressors.
Part of the media sided with the oppressors while a small portion of it threw its weight behind the oppressed. In any highly divided society, even just between the poor and the rich, the weak and the powerful, it is very difficult to find a media that is not divided along those lines.
In a society that is divided on the lines of justice and injustice, there will be part of the press that defends and advances justice while the other defends and promotes the interests of injustice. It is extremely difficult to maintain neutrality between justice and injustice, wrong and right, humaneness and barbarism, plunder and honest public service.
We can easily be enticed to read fairness and objectivity of the media as meaning parity between justice and injustice, between honesty and dishonesty. Injustice must be fought. Justice must be defended. Dishonesty must be exposed and denounced. Honesty must be commended and promoted or encouraged.
In a country where fairness, fraternity and honest public service exists or is truly encouraged, a free press can take more forms of expression. In a country in which dishonest and corrupt public service is the order of the day, in a country where the hegemony of plunders reigns and people’s independence and good governance is threatened, a free press won’t have many forms of expression.
If all this sounds too abstract, let us then state it in simpler terms. We would hope that the media in Zambia develops a greater professional integrity and responsibility. Be critical guardians of democracy and freedom, but respects its readers or audience and subjects, the targets of their criticism and reporting, and above all else, its own integrity as a social institution. And this includes both the privately owned and state owned and government controlled media.
In the end, it demeans all of us in the nation if one picks up a newspaper and disbelieves its stories at the start, waiting for further proof before you give credence to it. Or, if one detects basic flaws in stories and reports that could have been easily corrected by good basic journalism and editing.
What Comrade KK has done is to reiterate the commitment to the defence of a free, independent and robustly critical press that has been stated over and over that the freedom of the press and its inalienable right to be our critic and mirror are under threat in this country.
There is nothing wrong in taking vigorous issue with the media when one regards it as appropriate without that in any way implying a right on one’s part to infringe on the freedom of the press. We all have to do our best to ensure that journalism of quality plays its role in the future of our country by helping to create an environment under which it is possible to realise such a media.
Again, there is need to remind ourselves of an old saying that freedom and order are constantly in tension with one another in society. Order without freedom leads to totalitarianism. Freedom without order leads to anarchy. It is also said that societies recover quicker from too much freedom than they do from totalitarianism. We need to bear this in mind at all times in all our efforts to reform the media. And Zambia should put the freedom of its press and media at the top of its priorities as a country striving to build an open and more democratic, more just, fair and humane society.
As Nelson Mandela, KK’s comrade, once put it: “None of our irritations with perceived inadequacies of the media should ever allow us to even suggest faintly that the independence of the press could be compromised or coerced. A bad free press is preferable to a technically good subservient press.”
Labels: KENNETH KAUNDA, MEDIA, ZAMCOM
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Media should operate independently, says KK
By Agness Changala
Sun 25 Oct. 2009, 04:01 CAT
DR Kenneth Kaunda (left) has said it is extremely important for both the public and private media to operate independently without undue influence or intimidation from any quarter.
Giving his keynote speech at the 20th anniversary of the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) in Lusaka on Friday, Dr Kaunda said the media needed to work under a conducive atmosphere which encouraged and promoted freedom of the press.
“The media’s role is to inform and entertain the public and in fulfilling its role in dissemination of information, it is important that it does so without fear or favour especially in presenting editorials,” he said.
“In this way, the public can be assured of receiving unbiased and uncensored information on many issues including economic, social and political developments.”
Dr Kaunda observed that people the world-over took as gospel truth the information that was disseminated by the media, hence the need for professional and truthful presentation of information in line with journalistic ethics which must be held to the highest standards at all times.
He said the media was a very powerful institution which could either destroy or build the standing in society of governments, organisations or individuals.
“That is why it is extremely important, in keeping with the rules of natural justice, for fairness and balance in its dissemination of information,” he said.
Dr Kaunda also called on journalists to embrace investigative journalism in order to bring out the truth, saying where necessary, action could be taken by the relevant authorities.
He further said during elections, the media must give fair and equal coverage to all the political parties contesting the polls whether they were in the government or opposition.
“This is necessary so as to level the playing filed for all the contestants. The media therefore should have no favourites or enemies in executing its role of dissemination of information,” said Dr Kaunda.
And German Ambassador to Zambia Frank Meyke said a free, independent and vibrant media was the lifeblood of democracy.
Ambassador Meyke also said truthful and courageous journalism was the foundation for stable democracy and human rights in his country.
He observed that Zambia internally enjoyed the well deserved reput
ation of democratic, stable and peaceful country with a vibrant civil society and free independent media.
“Freedom of the press in Zambia and the efforts of ZAMCOM in promoting freedom of the press have considerably contributed to this good image. As partners…Germany takes great interest in the democratic future of Zambia,” he said.
Ambassador Meyke also expressed hope that the media in Zambia would continue to play an important role as guardians of democracy, particularly helping to ensure the country held free and fair elections in 2011.
Meanwhile, ZAMCOM chairperson Flavia Chishimba said the media and communication sector was key to the realisation of the national Vision 2030 and achieving the goals set out in the Fifth national Development Plan (FNDP) as the country worked towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Chishimba said it was with this realisation that ZAMCOM endeavoured to provide the needed training to journalists for them to make their contribution to the achievement of the national vision.
Labels: KENNETH KAUNDA, MEDIA, ZAMCOM
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Daka advises media to provide checks and balances on govt
By Florence Bupe
Saturday September 20, 2008 [04:00]
THE media should always endeavour to provide the necessary checks and balances on government, science minister Peter Daka has said. Officiating at the first Zambia Institute of Mass Communication Educational trust (ZAMCOM) graduation ceremony yesterday, Daka urged the media to ensure that the government was accountable to the people through ethical and factual reporting.
"The need for quality training cannot be overemphasised. Professionalism in the media fraternity is critical in the attainment of Millennium Development Goals, as well as in ensuring that there are checks and balances in the governance system," he said.
Daka advised the graduating students to practice issue-based journalism once absorbed into the media industry.
"As you go out in the field, ensure that you report objectively in order to help build the nation. Journalism is a powerful tool that can either build or destroy, and I urge you to use your skills positively by reporting on issues that affect the nation," Daka said. "This should move hand in hand with the values of love and peace. Guard against being used by people for ill-motives."
And Daka has reiterated the need for training institutions to be self-sustaining and profitable.
"Institutions should aim to be self-sustaining, because there will come a point when government will not give any grants.
We will continue supporting training institutions, but there is increased need for entrepreneurship and, ultimately, profitability," he said.
Daka further encouraged the graduates to be enterprising as a way of addressing high unemployment levels.
And ZAMCOM vice board chairperson Flavia Chishimba disclosed that the institution would soon launch an educational television station to upgrade the quality of its graduates.
She said the institution had already obtained a licence for the project, and was awaiting the purchase of a transmitter.
A total of 68 students graduated in media related studies, from 2005 to 2007.
Post Newspapers sports reporter Joseph Mwenda scooped the Muvi Television award for best student in Certificate in Journalism and Public Relations, 2005 programme.
Labels: MEDIA, PETER DAKA, ZAMCOM
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