Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) has appealed to political party leaders to ‘tame’ their party cadres in 2014.
PAZA President Andrew Sakala who gave his reflections on 2013 bemoaned the violence on media personnel at the hands of party cadres.
Mr Sakala, who is a Times of Zambia employee based in Ndola, noted that violence on Journalists gripped them to fully execute their duties especially when covering political stories.
Mr Sakala was speaking in interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today.
He narrated that Journalists from both the electronic and print media suffered the ‘boot’ of the cadres hence the need for party leaders to restrain their cadres from engaging in violent acts.
“There was a lot of violence against Journalists in 2013. You recall how ZNBC and Muvi television reporters were manhandled by party cadres but this should not happen in 2014. I appeal to party presidents to restrain their cadres from barbaric acts,” Mr Sakala said.
Meanwhile, Mr Sakala has appealed to government to establish a Board at the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to oversee the general performance of the media fraternity.
The IBA was enacted in 2002 as one of the benchmarks towards attaining media reforms and later the then MMD administration amended it in 2010 but the PF has filled and answered its mandate to create media reforms.
He observed that the absence of the Board lead to the cancellation of broadcasting licenses for some privately owned radio and television stations across the country.
He further observed that without the board, powers regulating the media still lies in the Minister of Information of Broadcasting Services.
“If the IBA Board was in place, broadcasting licenses for private radio and television stations could not have been cancelled,” Mr Sakala said.
The PAZA president further appealed to the PF government to enact the Access to Information Bill (AIB) in accordance with the promises it gave the people of Zambia.
“Promise after promise, but we hope the PF government gives us the AIB next year,” Mr Sakala said.
He however, commended government for putting in place a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Board headed by Dr John Mulwila and engaging the IBA Director General Josephine Mapoma who got the job on merit.
His Master’s Voice. Just tell the pf raffians or thugs to stop the rot.
Africa twasebana.
Very disapointed with the behavior of PF carders. Mr SATA should not turn a blind eye to the violence and lawlessness perpetuated by his carders. These are some of the things which made RB unpopular.Sir ,you will have a tough time in 2016, mark my words.
Just yesterday around 15 00hrs,coming from town, i almost had a head on collision with a bus load of carders in independence avenue just near Kamwala shopping center. The *****s defied traffic rules and were driving on the wrong side of the road. They were coming from Intercity bus terminus and joined independence driving into town
Bye Bye PF
Don’t waste your time PAZA!
PF is like a headless chicken with no capacity to get good advice!
We just need to impeach Sata and PF in 2014 before more damage is done to this country! Look at the rate at which Chikwanda is borrowing for consumption! There is a smarter way to borrow than what we see under PF.
We need to put an end to this madness in 2014 otherwise “happy 2014” will just turn out to be a nightmare!