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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
2002
the bills in line with international
standards.
While the media associations welcome
the removal of the Minister of
Information’s powers to issue broadcasting
licences, they reject the minister’s
continued control of ZNBC and
would prefer that the ZNBC be separated
from the executive.
UPDATE
DATE: 2002-12-18
PERSON(S): Opposition political
parties, media in Zambia
VIOLATION(S): Legislation
On December 13, 2002, the revised
Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation
(ZNBC) Amendment Bill
passed a second reading in Parliament,
indicating that it will be enacted
into law, despite strong objections by
the opposition.
The bill was originally introduced
by Minister of Information and Broadcasting
Services Newstead Zimba on
November 22, along with the Freedom
of Information (FOI) and Independent
Broadcasting Authority
(IBA) Bills. However, Zimba withdrew
the original ZNBC Amendment
Bill, when it became clear that it
would be defeated because it did not
go far enough in transforming ZNBC
into a public service broadcaster.
In the original ZNBC Amendment
Bill, the government sought only two
amendments to the ZNBC Act of
1997: namely, the removal of the Minister
of Information’s power to issue
broadcasting licences and allowing
ZNBC to collect licence fees to finance
its operations. However, opposition
members of Parliament and
media associations, which had been
166 So This Is Democracy?
campaigning for media law reforms,
felt the measures did not go far enough
in reforming ZNBC.
“Further changes to the law must
be made to enable ZNBC [to] operate
as a truly independent, public service
broadcaster, while ownership is retained
by the government,” read a
November 21 letter to Information
and Broadcasting Services Permanent
Secretary David Kashweka, signed by
MISA’s Zambian Chapter (Zambia
Independent Media Association,
ZIMA), the Press Association of Zambia
(PAZA), the Zambia Union of
Journalists (ZUJ), the Society of Senior
Zambian Journalists (SSZJ) and
the Zambia Media Women’s Association
(ZAMWA).
Outlining his objection to the original
ZNBC Amendment Bill, Lusaka
Central Member of Parliament (MP)
Dipak Patel expressed concern about
the government’s determination to
control ZNBC. “It is worrying to see
[the] government’s resolve not to let
go of ZNBC,” he said.
Following further criticism from
the opposition, on November 27
Zimba withdrew the ZNBC Amendment
Bill to include amendments that
the opposition had circulated in Parliament.
He re-introduced the revised
ZNBC [Amendment] Bill on 11 December.
The opposition welcomed it
as “a first attempt to transform ZNBC
into a public service broadcaster.”
Patel commended the government
for taking into account some of the
objections to the original ZNBC
[Amendment] Bill. However, he wondered
why government wanted the
minister to approve the appointment
of the ZNBC director general when
this was supposed to be the job of an