SWEDISH EMBASSY SPONSORING CONFUSION IN ZAMBIAN MEDIA- MLC

SWEDISH EMBASSY SPONSORING CONFUSION IN ZAMBIAN MEDIA

THE Confusion seen in Lusaka during the World Press Freedom Day
celebrations was sponsored by the Swedish Embassy.

On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, the Zambian media, as always, turned up countrywide to celebrate the day under the theme “Reporting in the Brave New World –
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Press Freedom and the Media.”

This year, the media in Lusaka had two marches, one organised by the MLC and its usual national local organising committee of the World Press Freedom Day whose members selected from among the Zambian media sector.

Another march was a march sponsored by the Swedish Embassy and BBC Media Action against statutory media self-regulation which saw Swedish funded media NGOs, media owners and some freelance journalists break away from the usual WPFD organised march.

This has never happened in Zambia where journalists have two marches going the opposite direction in in one city, and issuing contradictory statements on the state of the media and its
journalists.

The Swedish Embassy-BBC Media Action funded march was proposing that the Zambian media and journalists go against their unanimous decisions made at their 2019 first and second Insaka held in Lusaka in which journalists chose to be regulated by a law the journalists would have developed instead of waiting for Government to do so.

At the first Insaka (Conference), journalists unanimously voted to have the Zambian media space regulated by a statutory self-media regulation law formulated by journalists for journalists.

And it was at this function that delegates appointed a Technical Working Group
(TWG) to come up with a layman’s statutory self-regulation media bill to be called the Zambia Media Council (ZAMEC) Bill, which now has been dubbed the Zambia Institute of Journalism (ZIJ) Bill.

The TWG appointed at the Insaka to come up with this draft bill comprised under the auspices of the Media Liaison Committee (MLC) comprised MISA Zambia, Zambia Union of Broadcasters and other Information Disseminators (ZUBID),
Bloggers of Zambia, Zambian Bloggers Network, Media Network on Child Rights and Development (MNCRD), Zambia Institute of Independent Media Alliance (ZIIMA), Panos
Institute Southern Africa, and the Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA).

Others were Mthoniswa Banda Consultancy (MB Zambia), BBC Media Action, Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM), Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF), Suma Systems, Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) and the Free Press Initiative (FPI).

The second Insaka held in August 2019 validated the proposed Media Self-Regulation Bill before it was given to Government to take it to parliament. This is the media bill which is now being called the Zambia Institute of Journalism Bill (ZIJ).

The change of name was
necessitated by advice received from legal drafters at the Ministry of Justice of the existence of other statutory regulation media laws such as the ZNBC and IBA Acts.

This ZIJ Bill developed and approved by the Insakas is the media bill that the Swedish Embassy is against and the same bill that the Swedish Embassy using the BBC Media Action is funding free-lance journalists and Swedish fund dependent NGOs to oppose and create division in the Zambian media fraternity.

Their march past in Lusaka where the Swedish Ambassador was sharing the same podium with Swedish funded NGOs is evidence enough of who the masters are and who the puppets
are.

But since the MLC and the media appointed Technical Working Group have a mandate from Zambian journalists, journalists’ unions, media associations, Editors’ Forum and the academic, these disturbances and divisions in the media fraternity being caused by the
Swedish Embassy will not go unnoticed and unchallenged.

The MLC is therefore writing to the owners of this Swedish money, the Swedish Government and copying the Zambian Foreign Affairs Minister, to take note of these foreign sponsored divisions and chaos in the Zambian media and online space as sponsored by the Swedish
Embassy led by Ambassador Johan Hallenborg.

The MLC will also be writing to the Director of Immigration and copying the Minister of
Home Affairs and Internal Security to look into the inimical media activities of BBC Media Action led by its Country Director Soren Johansen, who is Danish and is in Zambia on a work permit issued to him by the Immigration Department.

The MLC has always noted with concern the media destabilisation activities of BBC Media Action since it came into Zambia in which its parasitic behaviour has led to the weakening of established media organisation and diverting of media support funds from donor agencies.

This includes taking away funding from the umbrella bodies like the Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF), including MISA Zambia, Panos Institute-thereby weakening the bargaining power of these media entities in Zambia.

The MLC has been open to internal discussions within the media sector on the ZIJ Bill and has always extended invitations to media owners and media NGOs who still have an input or reservations with this media bill to come forth and help improve this piece of legislation before it is taken to parliament.

The MLC is however opposed to foreign sponsored divisions and chaos in the media sector as being demonstrated by the Swedish Embassy using Swedish money.

The media in Zambia has always remained united in matters of press freedom and media professionalism even when the divide between state-owned and private-owned media was wide and evident because of media ownership and control.

The MLC will therefore not
standby while a foreign Government divides the media fraternity with impunity.

Issued by: Ms. Felistus Chipako
Chairperson – Media Liaison Committee (MLC)