Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Mwansa Kapeya says Zambia is on course to meeting the digital migration deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Mr Kapeya said government has put in measures and a policy which is working towards meeting the said deadline which is July 16th, 2016.
He said government could not meet the SADC regional deadline for this year which was set for June as it concentrated so much on meeting the international deadline.
The minister said this in Ndola today during a live interview on Sun FM radio station.
Meanwhile, Mr Kapeya noted that it is government’s desire to ensure that every district has a radio station.
He said this is so because radio stations are the quickest means of disseminating information.
Mr Kapeya said community radio stations in the country are doing a commendable job as people including the rural populace are now able to get first hand information.
He noted that due to the commendable job that the media is doing, it prompted government to create the Information Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to be responsible of monitoring the operations of the media.
Mr Kapeya pointed out that the media in the country has expanded and government does not want to interfere in its operations in any way.
He said the PF government does not want to have any hand in the running of the media as the media cannot continue to work under the control of government.
And IBA Director General Josephine Mapoma advised the media practitioners to ensure that only balanced stories are published.
She said it is important for journalists to work according to what the code of ethics stipulates.
ZANIS
I hope they mean what they are saying. If so this is a commendable development. Keep that promise for once not to have government interfere in your operations Ms Mapoma. I hope that this will not turn out to be another joke from this government of jokes. Free press is vital in a democratic society.
In this age we still don’t have radio coverage for the entire country, that shocking. Zambia is going back to stone or gone back already.
They change Ps before these Ps are settled… the new comer has own ideas.. Look at Mwalupenga and Mwamba each having on ideas instead of spear heading where his predecessor stopped. The outcome is moving forward then backward to restart under new PS 🙁