Government has dismissed allegations that the proposed media bill is aimed at fixing The Post Newspaper and its editor Fred M’membe as it has been reported in yesterday’s edition of the same tabloid.
Chief Government Spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha described the story as a total fabrication which is aimed at misleading the people in the country.
Gen Shikapwasha, who is also Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, said government is extremely disappointed with the unethical reporting exhibited by newspaper and accused it of deliberately failing to balance the story by getting a comment from government on the matter.
He said in a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday that it was such unethical tendencies that were making people call for media regulation.
He said The Post Newspaper was not only portraying unethical reporting but also deliberately showing ignorance of the legislative process to mislead the people.
General Shikapwasha said the Vice President does not make laws in Zambia as has been insinuated in the story carried by the Post Newspaper’s edition of today.
“Making of laws has a procedure, which The Post newspaper is pretending not to know. Drafting of a bill is initiated by the Ministry of Justice then the draft goes to the stakeholders for input. Thereafter, the bill goes to the Legislation Committee, Cabinet and then Parliamentary Committee. The Parliamentary Committee further calls for submissions from stakeholders. The draft bill is then debated by Parliament, at which point it is either passed or rejected,” Gen Shikapwasha explained.
Gen Shikapwasha therefore said the Post Newspaper was deliberately misleading the nation by stating that the Vice President would take advantage of the President’s long absence to push his agenda.
He stressed that there can be no law that can be made in the absence of the President because the President chairs cabinet and also signs Acts of Parliament.
Gen Shikapwasha urged the Zambian people to dismiss cheap allegations that Vice President George Kunda was making his own law.
“The media bill is under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services. At an appropriate stage the ministry will call stakeholders, including the Post Newspaper, to review the draft bill”, Gen Shikapwasha said.
He assured the nation that the drafting of a media bill is not intended to fix any media house or individual because that has never been government’s intention.
He added that government has always been committed to seeing media practitioners come up with a self-regulatory mechanism.
The minister alleged that the statement attributed to mysterious sources in the Ministry of Justice was just a mere manipulation and distortion of the situation, which was aimed at covering up the media practitioners’ failure to meet the six months deadline.
“Government has promised the nation that should the media fail to produce self-regulation mechanism within six months, it would provide an alternative. There is therefore, absolutely nothing wrong with government taking steps to draft the media bill, which will be an alternative,” he said.
Gen Shikapwasha has also disclosed that work was already in progress and that stakeholders would be involved at an appropriate time to contribute to the process.
He urged the Post Newspaper to concentrate on informing the nation on how far the media practitioners have gone in formulating a self-regulatory mechanism instead of misleading the people.
ZANIS
What makes him think that there is a fixing machination against him when he says he is immortal and untouchable before every creation? Why can’t he just keep quite if he is what he claims to be. This country is bigger than a tabloid quack.
Whenever you hear Gen. Pastor Shikapwanya claiming a story is, and quote: “a total fabrication which is aimed at misleading the people in the country”. you know he is himself lying and trying to mislead the people in the country. When the Post stated that Levy had a relapse and was in a comatose situation a fortnight before he died (MHSRIP), Shikapwanya used this same line to describe the Post story and yet two weeks later, Levy was no more. This man should ask Miyanda Godfoolish on how his creation the Public Order Act came back to bite him in his idle smelly prat.
It is clear that Fred Mmembe has not overcome his misfortune of growing in rejection which has left him with xenophobia, incorrigible hatred and envy against all father figures in life. All fathers ought to understand his fate because its a crisis from years of an upbringing in a broken fatherless home. Many are the times he goes at his mother stripping her naked with insults. But many victims of such misfortune overcome their emotional traps with maturity, time and spiritual counseling ending up into very loving and blessed father figures in their lives with happy families. But Mmembe has himself to blame. He gave himself up to Marxism with little knowledge, that he was inviting some malicious controlling demons of hatred now in charge of his life.
Though I doubt even the Media Regulation Act will have the nerve to bite George Kunda in his smelly backside prat because whatever the diseased animal immolation him (see his picture at the airport in today’s Post, skeleton sure), it may have laid eggs in a next nested by his annus, lurking to infect anything, spread out and fester in Zambia.
Veteran – Iwe ka Ben Kangwa, fuma apa! You must be ashamed of yourself to support Kansundila, a chap who sees it fit to marry a girl younger than his own children. No wonder, looking at that picture of his family boarding a plane to Mfuwe, you do not know which ones are daughters daughters-in-law, wife, children or grand children. If I were you, I would stop the nonsence of people’s backgrounds because you will just open a pandora’s box full or worms that will consume you. We also know of how your parents got married in an arranged marriage and you were born 6 months later with that tart called your mother claiming you were premature when if anything you were full 9 months and 1 week.
Veteran, Wishing you a very eventful Festive period and may you see reason in the new year, in short, Grow up even if you are an elderly person.
This General has a nose bigger than his brain.
Ka Ben wilatumpa, some of us feel like vomitting when we hear the sale-out like you are alive. Catch the wind and grow up and stop your brain-washed mind from functioning. We dont need low level personalities in this country. We are hurting requiring people who are seriuos in life not fortune seekers
This guy can only be believed by his family and Veteran.
Poor Gen.Shikapwasha! When u r writting something, the first draft has a big effect on what the final copy will look like! Clearly you have not done a lot of constrctive writting yourself. Even in this case whatever will be presented to whichever reviewer be it cabinet, parliamnet or the Genaral public will be the genesis and center of the debate! You can actually curtail all unnecessary debates by comming up with a good draft with input by all stakeholders and we all would just be talking about the grammer of this draft bill as we wait for its enactment! The question is does your draft bill contain the punitive measures the Post claim it does? Has George Kunda refused to accomodate the input of technocrats from your ministry? Once again you seem to be telling us lies!
ubufi bwaku….ya ba Rev….
Deus Mwale,
Your failure in life are personal and certainly not of Veteran’s creation.You have failed to work hard and define your value in life hence the poverty and wishful thinking that Sata could be your saviour when you know that he calvary bound without an opportunity on plot one.How come many of us have excelled from the 80s and still prospering? Why are you still a ponda nyelele since birth?
VETERAN you’re lucky you aren’t living in Zambia at the moment because am sure Mmembe would have been very happy to drag you to court to prove that he insults his Mother. I have always suspected that you’re a heartless satanist who sees humor in other people’s misfortunes. was it Mmembe’s fault that he got brought up by a single parent? Fine you were fortunate enough to have been brought up by both parents, however with nothing to shoe for it apart from your computer obsession and madness. God loves orphans, bastards and the lucky ones like yourself equally. You should withdraw that comment Ben because your kids are still you see.
Patriot my foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Are sure you know whats happening in peoples lives. Keep Sata out of this and concentrate on real issues. I have little to discuss with a group of low calibre who only think that prosperity is our material factors. People need food, education, accommodation,security and health. For once can we think higher than looking at life like what we have accrued. I feel sorry for not knowing the target you are communicating to.
#12 PATRIOT
You should be ashamed of yourself, just because bro Deus Mwale is still in Zambia does not mean he’s grafting or as you ‘ponding nyelele’. How do you pay bills if i may ask? You should be man enough and use only one ID.
“He said in a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday that it was such unethical tendencies that were making people call for media regulation.”
WHICH PEOPLE IWE RONNIE? YOU MEAN YOU, BANDA AND GEORGIE BOY? EVEN IF YOU SILENCE THE POST AND MMEMBE WE SHALL CONTINUE TO EXPOSE YOUR MISDEEDS.
#12 Which is better to work in US as a mail runner or a ZESCO director in Zambia!
When the Post is finally shut, then there will be a field day for these thieves to steal and steal to no end.
This chap called Chibaula Silwamba at the Post newspaper should be checked otherwise he will plunge this nation in chaos. He is very unprofessional in his reporting and he seems to be on an anti government crusade. He actually puts his opinion in a news story and the editors allow that to be published. Every journalism school will tell you that the only place for a journalist’s opinion in a newspaper is the editorial column.
# 13,
I repeat it for you:It is clear that Fred Mmembe has not overcome his misfortune of growing in rejection which has left him with xenophobia, incorrigible hatred and envy against all father figures in life. All fathers ought to understand his fate because its a crisis from years of an upbringing in a broken fatherless home. Many are the times he goes at his mother stripping her naked with insults. But many victims of such misfortune overcome their emotional traps with maturity, time and spiritual counseling ending up into very loving and blessed father figures in their lives with happy families. But Mmembe has himself to blame. He gave himself up to Marxism with little knowledge, that he was inviting some malicious controlling demons of hatred now in charge of his life.
But many victims of such misfortune overcome their emotional traps with maturity, time and spiritual counseling ending up into very loving and blessed father figures in their lives with happy families. But Mmembe has himself to blame. He gave himself up to Marxism with little knowledge, that he was inviting some malicious controlling demons of hatred now in charge of his life.
But Mmembe has himself to blame. He gave himself up to Marxism with little knowledge, that he was inviting some malicious controlling demons of hatred now in charge of his life.
VETERAN. Do you ever do any work other than peddling propaganda on LT?
The type of reporting at the Post newspaper is predictable and plays to the gallery of gullible readers. When they focus a headline story on one person, then they will continue focusing on that same person for about a week by interviewing people from their well known pool of sour sources like Sata, HH, TIZ, Max Nkole etc (In football about Kalu they quote Kazabu, Simata etc) by alternating each day to make the situation look critical. Meanwhile some disgruntled readers will start writing letters to the editor in support and claim there is tension in the nation. This is petty and calls for regulatory measures..
Useless MMD. What a s.t.u.p.i.d. leadership we can ever have. Who does not know that this bill is aimed at the Post Newspaper and M´memb? Ba LT you are aslo a suspect sometimes. You behave as thought you are a propaganda for the ruling Media Mweka Daddy (MMD). I have followed you closely and found that you reporting is biased and inclined to the MMD. It’s useless to have media houses that propagate the benefit of their pockets. Be sober and objective in your reporting. You are the ones who are misleading the people. Let us know if you are one of the beneficiaries of the government injustice. Please have the country at heart not your interests. Its immoral for people to be so greed or protect greed people. Shame on you if really this is what you are up to.
Where were you Shik when Ba Mulungoti was on air promising during the last general elections that ‘once the MMD goes through the polls the Post Newspaper will be dealt with’. Do you think we are fools when such media laws are being formulated to make us think they are for the all media houses. We are alive to the fact that the Post is being targeted in this whole thing. So Ba Shik fintu muleng’onza bakaamba bufi ubwakapela makufi. Mwatubepa pafula teshyet!
You remind me of Squealer in Animal Farm, always putting things in the right perspective, everything that the pigs did wrong. The rest of the animals could see through the lies all the time. Shik is = Squealer. Tough job being a spokesperson heh!
I feel sorry for you Mr Shikapwasha. When you die who are you going to answer to God or Rupiah? Rupiah won’t be your side to give God a Brown envelope. Learn to do the right thing. Innocent children are dying in hospitals because there is no medication, because MOH has no money but you can afford to send the Bandas and their clan including the maids for Xmas to Mfuwe.
I feel sorry for you Mr Shikapwasha. When you die who are you going to answer to God or Rupiah? Rupiah won’t be by your side to give God a Brown envelope. Learn to do the right thing. Innocent children are dying in hospitals because there is no medication, because MOH has no money but you can afford to send the Bandas and their clan including the maids for Xmas to Mfuwe.
So is this official the POST now has a deserved title of TABLOID?
Veteran / Senior Citizen / Ben Kangwa … there is a limit to which you can make comments that do not address the content of the article in question. You are old enough to have some respect for others, you fool. What is wrong with growing up fatherless? Do you even know whether Kunda, Banda, Mulongoti, Shikapwasha, and others in the MMD government had their fathers when they were growing up? In the USA where you are abusing Zambia’s tax payer resources by attacking those you are paying the taxes back home, are too senile to know that Obama did not grow up with his father? You must be very cheap to resort to such language …
Media bodies expose, denounce Kunda and his media bill
By Ernest Chanda
Fri 25 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT [224 Reads, 0 Comment(s)] Text size Print
Vice-President George Kunda
THE Media Liaison Committee (MLC) has exposed contents of the Media Council Bill engineered by Vice-President George Kunda.
And the media fratenity has declared Vice-President Kunda the most hostile public official towards the media, vowing to face him head-on.
Addressing the press at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre yesterday, MLC chairperson Henry Kabwe said Vice-President Kunda’s manoeuvres to censor and control the entire media in Zambia through his proposed draconian Media Council law ranks as one of the most blatant acts against media freedom and freedom of expression…
in Zambia since independence.
Kabwe disclosed that the contents of the Bill include, among others, Vice-President Kunda’s own definition of journalism.
“Punitive criminal sanctions of three years imprisonment and or a fine of K300,000 or both for perceived violations only determined by his government officials; A 15-member Media Council board appointed by the Minister of Information (majority of them non-journalists); Empowers the Minister of Information to make regulations any time to change the Act in consultation with only three of government-appointed Media Council members,” Kabwe explained.
“Empowers the Minister of Information to choose two ‘representatives’ from electronic media of his choice; Provides that citizens may have access to information held by public officials subject to laws of secrecy, confidentiality and security; Establishes practicing licenses for journalists which media practitioners will be required to hold each time they are on duty, failure to which they face an arrest and/or other criminal sanctions.”
The Bill also, “ Establishes the Zambia Institute of Journalists (ZIJ) to be the policy advisory group to government on media issues; Appointment to both the Media Council of Zambia and the ZIJ requires one to be at least a university degree holder.”
It further proposes that, “For any media outlet to employ an editor, the employer must register that editor with the Media Council and ZIJ and the registration is subject to the minister’s approval. This means that the Minister of Information will effectively be responsible for appointing editors whether in private or public media by passing a verdict on their appointments.”
The Bill, “Prohibits media owners and those ‘linked’ to owners from appointment to the council. The Council shall be funded by the State and ‘may’ receive donations from donors approved by the minister; Media Council can at any instance suspend practising license of an individual journalist or of the media outlet; And to take care of any matters incidental to the above or related matters.”
The objectives of the second Bill would be, “to provide for the establishment of the Media Council of Zambia; to provide for the establishment of the Zambia Institute of Journalists; to provide for the establishment of self-regulation of journalists and to take care of any matters incidental to the above or related matters.”
The committee vowed to face Vice-President Kunda head-on because he was singlehandedly pushing for the legislation.
“We have resolved that in order to face him squarely, we shall appropriately declare him the most hostile public official towards the media and the number one enemy of the media freedom since the end of single party dictatorship some two decades ago. Media groups have resolved to face George Kunda head-on because a thorough investigation and…
wide consultation in government and Parliament has shown that he is single handedly determined to push this draconian media law.”
He said Vice-President Kunda’s recent manoeuvres to censor and control the entire media in Zambia through his proposed draconian Media Council law ranks as one of the most blatant acts against media freedom and freedom of expression in Zambia since independence.
Kabwe said the media bodies shall go for a mass protest against Vice-President Kunda’s violation of the Constitution.
“The motive for this ugly disposition is his strange appetite to settle scores with his perceived enemies in the media, civil society and some legal practitioners who cannot bow to his trademark manipulative behaviour.
“As earlier stated, we shall treat the Vice-President as the number one enemy of the media in Zambia,” said Kabwe. “We shall notify the police this afternoon yesterday to inform them of a mass protest to register our grievance against the Vice-President’s intention to violate Article 20 of the Constitution and trample on media freedom;
“We have resolved to challenge the matter in the High Court at an appropriate time. We shall lobby progressive civil society groups, MPs and the international community to challenge this obnoxious law driven by one man’s hatred of certain individuals. Depending on the manner this matter will be handled, media groups may review its cooperation with government in various ways. Media groups will continue with its own self-regulation mechanism…
development.” As I earlier stated, it is smartly difficult to trust the reverand soldier.