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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
important achievement was the tabling before parliament of three media bills,
which are likely to be passed into law early in 2003.
The ascension of legal practitioner Mwanawasa to the presidency and his proclaimed
“New Deal administration of laws and not men” gave the media and
general public a glimmer of hope that there would be a more responsive government
attitude in the debate on media reform in the country. This was, however,
not forthcoming. The mistreatment of journalists by police and political
party cadres continued unabated and Section 69 of the Penal Code, which creates
the offence of criminal libel against the president, continued to be flagrantly
applied. The government was still very eager to keep its hold on ZNBC.
However, this time around the ruling MMD government’s stance on the media
and media reforms was met with a more concerted, determined and unprecedented
opposing force fuelled by a unity of purpose on the part of media
practitioners.
The differences between the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA), which represents
mainly government controlled media organisations and employees,
and the Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA), which comprises
independent media organisations and freelance journalists, were buried and
the two organisations began to work together in the fight for greater press
freedom in Zambia. The Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA) and
the Association of Senior Journalists joined them.
These media organisations collectively intensified the lobbying of members of
parliament where they already had an allies in Dipak Patel, a long time proponent
of a free press in Zambia, and Sakwiba Sikota, a vice president in the
major opposition party, the United Party for Development (UPND), and defence
lawyer for many journalists dragged to the courts during Chiluba’s rule.
The result of lobbying and other concerted advocacy activities was the proposal
that the ZNBC Act be repealed and replaced by a new Broadcasting Act
under which ZNBC would not have any licensing powers as is currently the
case and would be treated equally with other broadcasters. In addition the
new act would remove the Minister’s powers to appoint the Board of Directors
of ZNBC and therefore the appointment of the chief executive officer.
It was further proposed that an Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) be
established to regulate broadcasting and that a Freedom of Information Act
be enacted.
2002
A document was prepared on the proposals and presented to government and
was received with a surprise response. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
had already submitted proposals, including the repeal of the ZNBC
142 So This Is Democracy?