PUBLIC MEDIA IN INTENSIVE CARE

WE have written many times about the desperate state of the public media in Zambia. The Zambia Union of Journalists has today once again reminded us of these challenges as they make a passionate appeal to President Lungu to resuscitate these failing parastatals.
 
According to ZUJ the overriding problem is that all the state-owned media companies are in “intensive care” and if Government does not move quickly to save them, they will close down. These companies have for a long time been stifled by huge statutory debt and administration after administration has promised to recapitalize them.

The Union is hopeful that under His Excellency President Lungu, the affected companies will be saved from total collapse through debt conversion into share capital and recapitalization. The Union is hopeful the in-coming Minister of Information and Broadcasting will be given a specific task to save public media as a priority.
Our position on this matter remains the same. The idea of converting debts into shares is a non-starter, even if ZRA and other government entities bought shares how would that improve the performance of the public media? These institutions are not selling a product that Zambians are willing to buy.


                               ZAMBIA UNION OF JOURNALISTS

                                                  Unity is Strength

                                              PRESS STATEMENT

The Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) congratulates Zambia’s sixth Republican President, His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu on his election.
The Union is further encouraged that President Lungu, in his first
speech as Republican President said there was no time to relax and
that he, and his ministers, would get down to work immediately.
However, the union would like to bring to the President's attention
the plight of the media in the country, especially, the welfare of journalists; added to this, the state in which the state media is.
Employees of the state media are going through difficult times and it is the union's wish that the President and his new administration look at their welfare.
Employees at Times Printpak Zambia Limited are barely surviving and it is a miracle that the Times of Zambia continues to be published when these employees have gone without pay for quite some time now.

If employees at Times Printpak Zambia Limited are in a state of desperation, employees at Zambia Printing Company are in a state of depression as they have been relying on hand outs from the parent Ministry, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, and these wages are some of the lowest in the country.

The overriding problem is that all the state-owned media companies are in “intensive care” and if Government does not move quickly to save them, they will close down. These companies have for a long time been stifled by huge statutory debt and administration after administration has promised to recapitalize them.

The Union is hopeful that under His Excellency President Lungu, the affected companies will be saved from total collapse through debt conversion into share capital and recapitalization. The Union is hopeful the in-coming Minister of Information and Broadcasting will be given a specific task to save public media as a priority.

The Union stands ready to work with President Lungu and his administration in this regard.

SIGNED: ANGELA CHISHIMBA (GENERAL SECRETARY)

ISSUED: 3/02/15

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