By Patrick Sikana
Dear Ms Josephine Mapoma,
I had a lot of things to say, but I will keep this short. Today is Good Friday. As a Christian Nation, our preoccupation should have been to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
The problem, though, is that while we find ourselves compelled by a marauding virus to stay at home, we can’t stay tuned in because you closed our favourite TV station. In case you wonder why I’m angry, that’s the first reason.
The second is even worse. You lied. You lied when, in your brief statement revoking the licence for Prime TV, you claimed to have done it in “public interest.” Every square centimeter of that claim is a lie. And do you know what you have done to yourself by letting a disgraceful lie sandwiched between your logo and your signature get out to the public? You have impugned your own reputation and reduced it to that of a press freedom hypocrite, unfit to serve as a defender of an independent media. What an unfortunate scar on both the conscience and CV of a seasoned scribe like yourself!
Clamping down on media houses is not defending free speech, madam Mapoma, that’s stifling dissent, muzzling the press and assaulting the truth. You want to limit our options so that the powers that be can have the monopoly of pumping brazen lies into the water supply that corrupts the most important choices we make as a nation.
The IBA, in case this has slipped off your mind, is supposed to, among others, guarantee that the freedom of the media is protected and to make sure no one is getting punished for saying or writing something unpopular. IBA was not created to ensure that lies of the incumbent have unfettered access to the Zambian public.
It seems you want to wind the clock backwards. Here is my free advice. Zambia today isn’t what it used to be in your hay days. Our appetite for variety has evolved and grown in size and sophistication. We can no longer survive on the malnourished diet of ZNBC monologue, epilogue and national anthem. We have moved on as a nation. Catch up, or drop out.
You claim you want to want to protect public interest? How about you begin by defending a TV station whose words make your blood boil, a station that’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of its voice that which you and your paymasters would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to see the public “stand and sing of Zambia proud and free?” Then the symbol of our freedom cannot just be a national anthem; the symbol also has to be that we, as citizens, are exercising our right to sing and listen to other songs. Show me that, Josephine, defend that, celebrate that in your board room. Then, I can stand up and sing of Zambia proud and free.
You know what I think? I think you are no longer competent to lead the IBA. Nor is that all. I think you are a clear and present danger to the orderly cultivation of a free, open and independent media in Zambia. I will not ask you to re-instate the licence because I know that is above your pay grade. However, before the poisonous hemlock of your opaque intentions spreads further to cause irreparable harm beyond Prime TV, please do the only remaining thing with an ounce of honour: resign.