Zambia: Former State House Press Aide calls for a media conference to discuss a code of conduct

On 7 June 2010, former State House Press Aide Richard Sakala called for a media conference for the media to come up with a code of ethics which could be submitted to Parliament to be enacted into law.

 

In a letter addressed to the Minister of Information Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha dated 4 June 2010, Sakala suggested a media conference (indaba) for the media to come up with a code that they would have sense of ownership over and which would be responsive to internal and external enemies of the media profession.

“We have enough media practitioners and academics to prepare a practitioner-based draft code of conduct which will protect professionals rather than institutional interests,” he was quoted in the Daily Mail of 7 June 2010.

He said that this would be codified into law which would give effect and protect genuine media practitioners from charlatans who have given the journalism profession a bad image. Sakala said the model he was proposing was in use under various professions in the country.

He described the model as being time-tested that was not open to abuse or compromise by interest groups. He said it was common knowledge that there was an existence of tension between media ethics and the business or political interests of the media practitioners.

Sakala hoped that government, together with the donors can adopt a tripartite mechanism to support a broad-based initiative to enable the formulation of a media ethics body that was truly owned by the journalists themselves.

He said it was vital for the process to formulate and implement a media policy to be exhaustive.

“Therefore, any code of conduct must be a result of an internal introspection that admits failures that must be remedied while appreciating the external threats posed by such elements as government, politicians and business in general,” Sakala said.

When contacted by MISA Zambia Sakala confirmed writing the Ministry of Information and stated that he had acted in his individual capacity.

 

Background

MISA Zambia and other media associations have been making efforts to establish effective but non-statutory media regulation and have come up with an initiative called Zambia Media Council (ZAMEC). The ZAMEC establishment was outlined in a document that is called the Fringilla Consensus.

On 13 April 2010, government wrote a letter to a media conference that was discussing ZAMEC and described as inadequate the Fringilla Consensus. The Minister of Information in the same letter indicated that it was in favour of the Kenya Model of regulation which is a statutory regulation body.

The media has been making effort to meet with the Minister but it has not been given the opportunity to meet him to discuss the matter.

The media in Zambia resolved to launch the body regardless of the government stance and is since in the process of formulating the governing council of the ZAMEC

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Reagan Malumo

Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat

21 Johann Albrecht St

Private Bag 13386

Windhoek

Namibia

Phone: +264 61 232 975

Fax: +264 61 248 016

Mobile: +264 81 311 2626

Official Email: reagan@misa.org

Private Email: reagan32002@yahoo.com

 

 - June 9, 2010 by MISA

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Source : www.misa.org (received via email 10.06.10)