Zambia Media Critique

THE Zambian government has announced plans to create a consolidated media and newspaper publishing company under the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) Group.   This is a shocking decision given Zambia’s severely constrained fiscal position. The first step was taken a few days ago when the IDC dissolved the Times Printpak Board of Directors and handed over the management of the company to Zambia Daily Mail leaving only the editorial team to manage content at the broke parastatal haunted by massive debt and liabilities. The state controlled Times Printpak Limited the Publishers of the Times of Zambia and Sunday Times of Zambia has growing outstanding statutory liabilities with workers not receiving regular monthly salaries, in some cases up to 11 months in arrears. During the first nine months of 2019, Times Printpak recorded an operating loss of K41.7 million and had a return on assets (ROA) of -49 per cent. The IDC has directed that the Zambia Daily Mail Limited Boar

PROMINENT Zambian businessman and proprietor of MUVI Television Stephen Nyirenda successfully inherited leadership of the National Restoration Party (NAREP) last week. NAREP was established in March 2010 by Elias Chipimo Jr.  Chipimo was the party's presidential candidate in the 2011 general elections, finishing fifth in a field of ten candidates with 0.4% of the vote. In the National Assembly elections the party received 0.2% of the vote and failed to win a seat. Chipimo proved to be a formidable, eloquent and youthful politician coming on the scene with a western style issue based politics with a clear manifesto proposing radical socio-political and economic reforms with innovative ideas around environmental management and energy. In his short political career, Chipimo was heavily criticized for not actively engaging with the masses particularly the youth in high density areas and those in rural areas thus denying the critical voting masses a chance to interrogate his

By Bruce Chooma A recent report ranked Zambia the fifth hungriest nation on earth. This coincidentally comes at a time when the country is grappling with a severe drought which has devastated more than half of the country mainly in the Southern, Central and Western Provinces leaving many rural households surviving on wild fruits, roots and tubers. Despite enjoying a long period of peace and stability, climate variation has severely impacted the landlocked country of Zambia, where most farmers rely on rain to grow their crops. In the 2018 -2019 farming season, many areas in southern and western Zambia saw the lowest rainfall since at least 1981. 40% of Zambian children continue to be stunted, a figure that has remained consistent over the last few years, and the UN estimates that the current number of acutely food-insecure Zambians (1.7 million) will rise to 2.3 million by March 2020.   Many stakeholders have asked the Zambian government to declare the hunger situation a nat

THE political temperature is rising as Zambia nears the 2021 general elections. The ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and the main opposition party United Party for National Development (UPND) are not leaving anything to chance. Analysts have pointed out that the ruling party has never felt secure with its narrow victory over UPND in the 2016 elections hence its continued efforts to demonstrate who has more power and influence at every opportunity and particularly when there is a by-election. The fight for political dominance has often turned violent and for some time now political party supporters commonly referred to as party cadres in Zambia have used offensive weapons such as machetes commonly referred to as pangas to maim their opponents usually in the campaign battleground. A recently held by-election in Western Zambia in the District of Kaoma turned into yet another political battleground resulting in the death of a UPND supporter who was allegedly shot by an agent of their

FREE and open access to public information by citizens is one of the hallmarks of a well-functioning democracy. Zambia like many other peer African countries continues to defer and to an extent frustrate citizens’ efforts to have easy access to information on the operations of government for them to hold their leaders to account. Nearly two decades ago Zambia began drafting what it called the Freedom of Information Bill which has now evolved into the Access To Information (ATI) Bill. However there has been consistent deferment of the date of introduction of the Bill to Parliament despite assurance that the Bill was approved by Cabinet.   Open access to information legislation are contentious on the African content and some commentators have argued that they have no meaningful impact on access to information by the media and little evidence exists that points to the extent to which they actually assist investigative journalism. An interesting argument for and against freedom

Zambia’s Minister of Justice has gone ahead to table before Parliament a Bill to amend the Republican Constitution despite the proposed amendments receiving massive public resistance.   Analysts and professional think-tanks both at home and abroad continue to disapprove of the ongoing attempts by Zambian authorities to amend the Republican Constitution citing far reaching negative consequences should the  Constitutional Amendment Bill succeed. Given Lubinda - Justice Minister The Zambian Constitutional Amendment Bill was released for public comment on 21 June 2019. Section 79 of the Constitution provides that a Bill which seeks to amend the Constitution must be published in the Gazette 30 days before its first reading. On the second and third readings the Bill must be supported by two thirds of all members of the Assembly. The amendments proposed include the reintroduction of the position of Deputy Ministers which Zambia did away with in 2016 after years of consistent

The international community has stood in solidarity with human rights activists in Zambia who are opposed to the enactment of a new mental health legislation for failure to comply with human rights standards. The Zambian government seems to have left out crucial submissions made by stakeholders during the consultation process and produced a draft which has not been well received even by representatives of persons with mental illnesses and disabilities. In a solidarity statement signed by ten international organisations and experts including Amnesty International, Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD), Disability Rights International, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and Validity Foundation – Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, serious concerns have arisen on the text of the Bill. In recent years, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has criticized Zambia’s outdated laws applicab

Zambian authorities have continued to use state institutions to muzzle the independent press. The crackdown seems to always heighten around election periods. The latest victim is Prime Television which has received a one month suspension of broadcast license together with private radio station Valley FM and revoked two licences of Ngoma and Kafue radio stations for breaches associated with content relating to the coverage of recent by-election in which the ruling party lost. Announcing the suspension IBA Board Secretary Josephine Mapoma says Prime Television has been suspended for exhibiting unprofessional elements in its broadcasting through unbalanced coverage, opinionated news, material likely to incite violence and use of derogatory language.  She adds that during the suspension the station is expected to conduct in house training on basic journalism ethics and news script writing.  A few days before the suspension, media freedom watchdog The African Freedom of Expression