SILENCING THE TRUTH: HICHILEMA TARGETS ONLINE MEDIA SPACE- Fred M’membe

SILENCING THE TRUTH: HICHILEMA TARGETS ONLINE MEDIA SPACE

Let the people speak freely!

The intentions by Mr Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND to regulate digital and social media platforms is a very desperate and unfortunate move.

Recently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services revealed plans to revise the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act in order to provide for regulation of podcasts and online broadcasting. The government stated that it had detected the proliferation of online broadcasting, which is apparently unregulated. This announcement was made during the presentation of the IBA and ZNBC draft layman’s bills by technical working groups.

All these desperate oppressive manoeuvres confirm that Mr Hichilema and the UPND are ill-fitted to govern, unite, and see to it that this country progresses. It is clear the UPND wants to suppress free political expression to prevent private citizens from holding them to account. Their many failures have exposed them as incompetent and incapable of fulfilling the humongous campaign promises they made to the Zambian people.

Mr Hichilema and his league are increasingly getting desperate because they have seen that multitudes of citizens are frustrated and disgruntled, and now compelled to lose trust in our country’s processes and systems, and our democratic path in general. They are fully aware that the people have realised the kind of fraudulent leadership they voted for and are rising very fast to vote them out in 2026.

So, amidst this gloomy picture, the only recourse for Mr Hichilema and his government is to try and suppress public discourse, which they unquestionably know is against them. Things are not up to scratch, and Zambians are beginning to voice out their frustration and anger fearlessly. But Mr Hichilema thinks he can dodge responsibility by silencing citizens through such draconian laws. It will not work. Zambians will not allow Mr Hichilema to take us back to the dark days of the one-party rule.

Mr Hichilema and the UPND’s hypocrisy is actually scandalous. How can people who rode on the back of rogue media like Zambian Watchdog and Koswe, which operated on Facebook and other digital platforms to malign and maliciously defame private citizens as a way to put the UPND in power be against podcast and online broadcasting? What kind of human beings are these? Why do they think they have a reserved seat to act as they wish towards others, but the same should not be done to counter them? What is so special about them? What a rotten sense of entitlement and self-importance!

Today, they want to bully and suppress the same digital platforms they used to get into office when mainstream media was unfriendly to them. They expect their political competitors and citizens to keep quiet and standby and watch. We will resist it. These despotic manoeuvres to decimate critical voices will be bravely defied. This country is for all of us.

It is also shocking that they think they can fully regulate social media. These platforms are not Zambian owned, and they are accessible anywhere and everywhere, including in the diaspora, from where many Zambians can hold them to account for their corruption, divisiveness, and other unpatriotic tendencies. Are they going to regulate podcasts on Zambia operated from overseas? It is folly to think they can do this without being able to control the global online media space.

Besides, the affordances of social media allow citizens to operate incognito. We thought they knew this as a party that relied on anonymity, not to advance civil discourse, but to use insults, hook and crook to get into the same power that is now backfiring in their faces. Governance is not child’s play.

Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party