Witchcraft Case
By Dickson Jere
In 2001, I was elected President of MISA-Zambia. One of my first assignment was to engage the judiciary on the possibility of opening up court cases for live coverage as well as allowing photographers inside court. High Court Registrar Philip Musonda (as he then was) agreed with our proposal but indicated that it required some legal reforms in that area. I, and others, have been pushing for that proposal since then.
So, I was elated when I heard that current Chief Justice Dr. Mumba Malila, SC, had decided to opened up to the live coverage of the eligibility case involving former President Edgar Lungu in the ConCourt. That presented an opportunity to assess the coverage and develop a plan going forward.
You see, when I wrote a letter in 2001 to the Judiciary, I did emphasize that live coverage should not be restricted to specific cases. This should be left to the media to decide – after all – that is why they exist. They should decide to pick what is newsworthy and probably even get Sponsorship for the coverage. The moment the judiciary begins to choose which cases to cover, then the problem begins.
The judiciary cannot be the one to dictate as to which case is important and worthy live coverage. The judiciary will also be dragged into the mud by politicians the moment it starts to decide on which case to be covered.
Here my proposal, as I submitted in 2001. The judiciary should come up with ‘Media Coverage Rules,2025’ which should provide a legal framework of life coverage of cases. The journalists will decided which case is worthy live coverage but they need to inform the court on time for preparation. It is their call!
I am both of the two worlds – journalism and law. So I understand both sides. Each media organization has own audience and agenda. You do not expect Financial Times to invest resources in the coverage of “witchcraft” story when its target audience is more finance. Such a publication will be interested in covering the KCM story, for example, in the Commercial Court. So allow the media to decide what is newsworthy and important and not the Judiciary.
What about the witchcraft story?
My personal views as both journalist and lawyer is that it is not an important story to be given all the attention. It just ridicules the Presidency in Zambia as well as our society. It shows Zambia as a backward nation still believing in juju when countries are moving ahead and discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is human interest story that is not worthy the noise.