MEDIA FRATERNITY SAYS NO TO ZAMBIA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM BILL AND STATUTORY MEDIA REGULATION
Lusaka, April 20 – We the undersigned organisations are taken aback and surprised at the emergency of yet another Bill meant to curtail media freedom through statutory regulation.
As stakeholders in the media industry, we have not been aware of any process to draft the Zambia Institue of Journalism Bill and we would like to register our regret and strongest opposition to the proposed media regulation Bill.
This is the second Bill attempting to regulate the media after the ZAMEC Bill was halted by the Government some two years ago following a similar protest from several media stakeholders.
We would like to remind the nation that the Republican President Mr. Hakainde Hichilema as well as the Minister of Information and Media, Mr. Cornelius Mweetwa, are on record on numerous occasions where they gave assurances that Governance does not intend to regulate the media through any statutory mechanism.
Accordingly, through several engagements with journalists and other stakeholders at different levels, a media self regulatory mechanism framework was established with full endorsement and support from the government.
Today, journalists from across the country are currently subscribed to the code of ethics established by the Media Self Regulation Council of Zambia.
We therefore urge technocrats in the Ministry of Information and Media to stop misleading Government through schemes meant to create an impression that journalists in Zambia are in support of statutory regulation when in fact not.
No journalist worth their salt can accept to be used to rubber-stamp the statutory regulation process. The collective cry of journalists in Zambia has been for a repeal of the existing draconian laws that are prohibitive of independent and investigative journalism. Statutory regulation is, and will always be, inimical to media freedoms.
As media stakeholders, we are particularly concerned that this secretive Zambia Institute of Journalism Bill, is coming at such a critical time when many stakeholders are opposed to the proposed constitutional amendments as well as the recently enacted Cyber Crimes Laws.
We urge the Government to put aside the proposed Zambia Institute of Journalism Bill and instead support an already existing media self regulation mechanism.
Signed:
Media Owners Association of Zambia
Media Institute of Southern Africa
Catholic Media Services
BBC Media Action
Panos Institute of Southern Africa
Free Press Initiative
Media Self Regulation Council of Zambia
You can’t continue with no all the time! The New Dawn government had given you Freedom of Speech which you never had under PF, and you all decide to go beyond your freedoms limits together with the opposition. You were asked to self regulate and you either failed or ignored. Now the government has decided to introduce some regulations in place to help you, but now you have started crying. Rules and regulations are their to provide sanity. How can you be a Christian Nation that does not abide by law? You expect the government to be held to very high standards, but not everyone else. That’s a receipe for disaster ! Everyone has to follow the law.
There has to be rules in any game. You can not operate on “free for all” basis where every Jim Jack and Jock calls himself a Journalists and spews all manner of falsehoods.
My understanding is that you were given the opportunity to come up with a draft and for years you have failed to come up with anything. In the meantime, the Public is subject to all manner of falsehoods and persons who want to masquerade as journalists are very far from it, spread every lie they can and who holds them accountable? Lawyers have LAZ with the LAZ ACT, Accountants have ZICA with an act to regulate them. Engineers, Marketeers all have some professional body to regulate who can practice in their field. What is so special about Journalists that they think they are above the law?
Jackson April 21, 2025 At 1:11 am
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There has to be rules in any game. You can not operate on “free for all” basis where every Jim Jack and Jock calls himself a Journalists and spews all manner of falsehoods.
My understanding is that you were given the opportunity to come up with a draft and for years you have failed to come up with anything. In the meantime, the Public is subject to all manner of falsehoods and persons who want to masquerade as journalists are very far from it, spread every lie they can and who holds them accountable? Lawyers have LAZ with the LAZ ACT, Accountants have ZICA with an act to regulate them. Engineers, Marketeers all have some professional body to regulate who can practice in their field. What is so special about Journalists that they think they are above the law?