Be diverse, media urged

THE media should be encouraged to not only focus on political power but also on the energy sector in the energy expert Johnstone Chikwanda has said.

Mr Chikwanda said the energy sector had been evolving and would continue to evolve for a long time to come due to ongoing innovation, new discoveries, market dynamics, consumer demands, regulatory changes and climate change among other developments.

He noted that without the media it would have difficult to help shift consumer mindset to embrace energy saving products which were being resisted by society in continued preference to filament light bulbs.

“Without the media, the plight of different stakeholders wouldn’t have been appreciated more, and also our progress in driving change, diversification, the search for new industries and preparing society of future events would have been difficult.

He said the media has played a critical role by giving the energy sector adequate space and coverage in a world of stiff competition for headlines and space in various media platforms. Mr Chikwanda said in line with this year’s global theme “Keeping power in check, justice and the rule of law,” the media has been encouraged to remain resilient and courageous in exposing vices which had capacity to undermine the integrity of the energy sector.

“I would like to encourage the media fraternity to not only focus on political power but also on industry power in the private sector, consumer power and how each of these forces shape the space we occupy.

He said economy of Zambia was within the energy sector which was made up of the petroleum sub-sector and the electricity sub-sector. “With the removal of some subsidies in both electricity and petroleum sub-sectors, it remains crucial to highlight the social injustice of how a narrow segment of society was enjoying hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies at the expense of the majority of the people who had no access to energy,” Mr Chikwanda said.