Zambia Media Critique

MANY parents of children with disabilities in Zambia today hide their children in homes and deny them an opportunity to socialise and access social development amenities. Sadly, this situation obtains even among very educated Zambians. The attitude of many people is still negative towards persons with disabilities in general. The truth is that no one chooses to live with a disability as it can happen to anyone at any time of their life. According to the World Report on Disability (WHO, 2011), every population of a country comprises 15% of persons with disabilities. In a population of around 13 million people, this translates to two million people in Zambia living with disabilities. Currently this disadvantaged group faces serious problems in accessing social services and justice on an equal basis with other persons. Our society must refrain from seeing disability as a condition on someone but must begin to see disability as a result of our inability to create an environment wher...

The government has announced its intentions to enact stronger legislation to regulate the operation of churches in Zambia. According to Ministry of Home Affairs deputy minister Stephen Kampyongo, this move is a response to demands from the church mother bodies and other religious organisations who have expressed concern on the mushrooming of churches and the growing number of clergymen and women who remain unaccounted for in Zambia. I ask the question, since when did churches become a problem? When did they transform from being institutions of hope, morality, integrity and uprightness to institutions of anarchy requiring supervision and control?   Perhaps the government is moving with undue zeal on a matter that they should be leaving to already existing structures such as the registrar of societies and the church mother bodies. The truth is that, as any society grows and develops, it becomes more dynamic and all its institutions evolve and encounter problems. The perceived pr...

THE work of journalists is becoming increasingly difficult in Zambia due to growing intolerance by the state to independent media and a rise in cases of harassment of journalists. A recent report by Freedom House, a US based human rights organisation showed that in 2013, Zambia fell 21 places from 72 to 93 out of 180 and landed in the category of states that are classified as “not free”. The Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) recently joined many other organisations in raising alarm at the deteriorating state of press freedoms in Zambia. In their statement to the media the organisation expressed shock at recent developments that were clearly a violation of the rights of journalists to practice freely and also bent on gagging freedom of expression and speech. Most journalists working for independent media and community journalists are now working in fear and wonder who will stand up for them. It is clear that the Media Institute of Southern Africa MISA Zambia is no longer...

The Bank of Zambia Governor has attributed the rise in interest rates to increased domestic borrowing by government to finance infrastructure projects. The central bank is happy with the impact of its measures on the stabilisation of the kwacha and hopes to loosen its interventions as the kwacha gains more firm ground. Below is the full statement.   GOVERNOR’S STATEMENT ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR The Bank of Zambia wishes to update the general public on recent developments in the financial sector, following the measures we announced at the end of May to address the instability in the foreign exchange market. Over the past six weeks, we have seen some stability return to the financial sector as a direct result of the measures we took to ensure that we are able to contain inflation and stabilize the foreign exchange market. In this regard, over the past six weeks we have seen the Kwacha appreciate to its current levels of around K6.1 per U...

THE Zambian government has started issuing letters of de-registration to Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that have refused to register under the NGO Act of 2009. Top on the list include the Non Governmental Organisation Coordinating Committee NGOCC, Transparency International and Action Aid Zambia all of whom have been very instrumental in speaking out on matters of good governance. In February 2014 Four Hundred and Sixty (460) Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) announced their resolve not to register under the Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) Act until all the necessary amendments on what they termed as an unconstitutional Act of 2009 were done. In 2013 The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai wrote to the Zambian government on the a lleged undue interference with the work and organizational structure of civil society organizations. The Special Rapporteur observed with regret that the Government of ...