‘ENACT ACCESS TO INFORMATION BILL’

THE Livingstone Press Club (LPC) has challenged the government to fulfill its promise to enact the Access to Information Bill, saying it has taken over 10 years of talk and little action.

And Southern Province permanent secretary Mwangala Liomba has challenged the media in the province and the country as a whole to be relevant to society byreporting issues that are beneficial to the community other than politics alone.

Speaking during this year’s World Press Freedom Day held the Post Office in Livingstone on Thursday, LPC president Brian Hatyoka said it was worrying that for the last 10 years, government had only been promising to enact the ATI but had not done so.

Mr Hatyoka wondered why government was scared of the bill despite it being beneficial and useful to both the government and the public.

He further asked government to come up with better ways of regulating social media even though it would be an infringement on the media.

“As journalists, it is not correct for us to be turned into handbags by politicians; we need to exercise our independence by being positive in our reporting. We should maintain professionalism,” he said.

“We are urging the government to play its role by taking the access to information bill to Parliament so that it can be enacted. This bill has taken over10 years and we do not know why government is scared to do so. This bill will benefit both the government and citizens,” Hatyoka charged.

“We are also appealing to the government to come up with ways of regulating social media despite us as the media not being for the idea. I am saying so because social media has been turned into a tool to promote hate speech. We need to use it positively and correctly,” he said.

And guest of honour Southern Province permanent secretary

Mwangala Liomba challenged the media in the province and the country as a whole to be relevant to society by reporting issues that are beneficial to the community other than politics alone.

Mr Liomba said that as things stood, some media institutions had only been publishing politics leaving out other issues affecting the people.

“Press Freedom is essential to our country, however, there are some journalists that that are destroying the journalism profession…because of that government is trying to regulate the media by targeting imposters who are pretending to be journalists when in fact not,” he said.

“Government and the media should work together. We are further urging the media to investigate more before publishing or broadcasting their stories. What is happening about the origin and nationality of someone should not be entertained… the media should investigate before publishing such stories,” he said.

This was contained in a speech ready on his behalf by southern province deputy permanent secretary Kennedy Mubanga.

“The country needs effective and dedicated journalists to inform the people Zambia…following President Edgar Lungu’s directive, I would like to assure you that the access to informa- tion bill will this year be taken to parliament,” he said.

“It has been a cry for both the people of Zambia and the media. What is required is just for the media to work with government. I also want to urge perpetrators of violence and harassment against the media that culprits will be dealt with by the law,” he said.

Meanwhile, FODEP Livingstone District Chairman Nyambe Mutete has challenged the media to exercise the role of watchdogs ahead of the planned national dialogue.

Mr. Nyambe said that the people of Zambia are eager to know what will be discus sed and eventually its outcome.