Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary Mr. Amos Malupenga has challenged the Zambian mainstream media to update their websites daily to avoid creating a vacuum which the social media are filling with lies and half truths.
In a statement released to the media by Chansa Kabwela, the First Secretary for press at the Zambian Embassy in Malawi, Mr. Malupenga said the traditional media houses have a duty to timely provide their audiences with news and information.
Mr. Malupenga made the remarks when he and his delegation paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s High Commissioner to Malawi His Excellency Billy Munyumbwe on Tuesday.
The team is in Malawi to attend a meeting with the Copyright Association of Malawi and senior officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture today (Wednesday).
Mr. Malupenga said the provision of information timely is even more critical for Zambians living abroad who are thirsty for news and information about their country.
He said he had observed with sadness each time he travels out of Zambia that it is always a nightmare to access latest news and information from traditional media outlets’ websites such as the Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and sometimes The Post.
“I know how you are feeling especially you colleagues in the Foreign Service because I have experienced it before. It’s actually not only frustrating but it is also annoying. When people are thirsty for water and all they can see is dirty water, they will be forced to drink that dirty water. This is what is happening with some of these websites whose names are not worth mentioning. People are looking for credible news and information but when they visit the websites with such news all they find is stale news and information. In frustration they end up visiting those websites carrying dirty water. I have brought this to the attention of media heads but I have also observed that their reaction has been slow,” Mr. Malupenga said.
However, Mr. Malupenga said Government was keen to promote professional journalism in Zambia.
He urged Zambians in the diaspora to ignore the websites that are in the habit of peddling lies and maligning people because their agenda is against those in government.
“Freedom of expression does not entitle people to defame others. But we in the government will not pay attention to such websites because we will be giving them unnecessary credibility. We are comforted by the fact that genuine Zambians know the difference between constructive criticism and malicious propaganda,” Mr. Malupenga said.
Mr. Malupenga said the delegation was in Malawi to learn how the country implemented the hologram, a security feature that is put on all audio-visual products to fight piracy, a programme which Zambia is set to roll out in March.
He said the team had gone to Kenya where it had successful meetings with the Copyright Board of Kenya to share experiences and ensure that the programme is well executed in Zambia.
Mr. Malupenga said the Zambian musicians have been losing income due to piracy which is being perpetuated in unscrupulous people’s backyards and the Government has been concerned.
“For the last one year we have been working on this programme and the security feature has already been manufactured by a company in the UK and in the next one week or so we will be traveling there just to formalize.
Within the course of March the Security feature will be in the country. Before we implement it we are going to countries that have implemented the hologram to learn from their experiences and avoid the obvious mistakes,” he said.
Mr. Malupenga also said Zambia was privileged to co-host with Zimbabwe the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Congress this year and foreign Missions have a duty to showcase the country’s tourism potential and investment opportunities to the outside world.
And High Commissioner Munyumbwe said the media had a duty to provide accurate and objective information to the public for key decision making.
He said there was need for the media to aspire to provide information in a timely manner unlike the current scenario where the traditional Zambian media do not regularly update their websites.
High Commissioner Munyumbwe also said the relations between Zambia and Malawi are good and the Mission is committed to selling the country’s enormous potential
I think he is talking about the Post newspaper with its half truths and total lies- Michael this , Michael that, our Michael. The Times of Zambia, Daily mail, Tumfweko and Post can naturally only feed zambians with lies.
Its loud and clear that he is advising The Post Newspaper. Your former employer is finished my friend. Now its time for that stubborn Tonga boy.
Only this LT & Zambia Dailymail website are moderate, unfortunately good people don’t show-off.
True that……this guy is dull, how does he expect Times, daily mail and or the post to be making money if they go viral
LT, please you should keep up with your daily updates, thanks…..all the best!
Zambia Daily started very well with updates but now they have become like everyone displaying news which is months old, its a shame.
Like Tumfweko.com.The guys take ages to update
Your post does why ask others?
Post newspaper is very behind with its online update.Thanks goes to Lusakatimes.com and Zambianwatchdog.com
Shameless Malupenga, you think we have forgotten the lies you peddled with Fred M’membe in order to get into governement? Who can beat you chaps in telling lies, no one!
Amos, if you have nothing to say, just shut up.
People can get the news from many sources. How about a daily update of parliament when running coz I’m not sure what actually goes on in there and it might actually teach me something more than all these politicians mouthing off to press. Would love to see them actually working when not walking out on each other. There’s a gap for you to fill alongside lots of non politics based news. As for stopping rumours… time best spent more constructively.
LT is miles ahead, well done guys keep up the great work.
as well as the ever ahead watchdog..my my the watchdog is even ahead of the executive…so surprising indeed.
these paper based news houses face stiff competition from online media. Zambia daily mail tried to update its website on a regular basis and paper sales went down as people stopped buying it and resorted to Reading it freely online. the same thing happened to the post newspaper. you cannot compete with an online publication whose annual operational costs are about KR5,000 the paper based whose operational costs are in KR millions. ba malupenga bapuba. moreover people have lost interest in the bwinji mfumu publication as it aligned to the dictatorial regime of Micheal sata and his minions
Surfing the net aint free, why do you think record labels have allowed their music to be downloaded on the net?? They little amount you top up your phone or pay Zamnet zamtel or which ever internet provider you use is the payment used to access the various websites so it aint free unless you saying your internet is free
Malupenga dont worry, we as Zambians are not complaining at all. Its good to us especially that the dirty water is not being updated. Who cares? We are comfortable with LT publications so take your dirty water to rot in streets where pipo have gradually stopped buying it especially the ka Post dirty pot with dirty water.
There is time for everything bwana and u cant continue duping pipo u liars.
dont buy the post dont even waste time reading their online news.dont waste yo money placing adverts.
I agree
updates must must daily lest people believe lies
I do agree with Amos on state websites. Something needs to be done urgently, the information on most of these websites is outdated. However, people in diaspora have a choice to filter information from any sources and no one can command them on this one. They can use their own judgement when perusing through these on-line publications. I hope LT will give me the right flag this time. Yes!
Nothing can clean the amount of dirt or corruption to put it more bluntly that sips through from pf regalia holders. The more reason why reporters are tired of peddling fantasies of the secretariat and leave private publications to mop up after them.
Malupenga will soon suffer from a heart attack arising from loss of business that his newspaper, The Post, is experiencing. The world is has been transformed into a global village. In this regard I am free to read The Washington Post from USA, the Observer and Guardian from UK, Mail-Guardian from South Africa. Within Zambia I cannot waste my precious time reading the news-worthless, Daily Mail, Times of Zambia nor The Post; but will rather prefer to brouse Lusaka Times, the Watchdog, or Zambian Reports. Mmembe’s and Malupenga’s deceptions have seriously impacted negatively on Govt news media (plus The Post). Since the Post has openly been supporting Kabimba and Masebo against GBM, the Bemba-speaking readers have now opted to ignore The Post. More disastors are yet to to emerge.
Good advice. When I follow the link to the PF website from the State House website, I get a page that says: “This domain name will be on Godaddy Auctions soon.”
Hmmmmm…… maybe UPND should buy the domain name?
Did the PF just concede that the Post is pro-PF, “… and sometimes the Post” so he says
Admission of failure Mr Malupenga!! Just admit that you are being outsmarted bi LT and AWD!
Posted in ZWD BY i_Jah_man_Levy – January 23, 2013 COPYCUT BY ME Pufu
Moral of the story: Malupenga also drinks the alleged ‘dirty water’… how else would he know the water was dirty if he didn’t drink or look at it?
Way to go Malu for coming out in the open… you know you are also thirsty like the rest of us. Apparently the filthy that is making the water we are drinking dirty is coming from your clothes and your underwear’s. Please wash them and the water will be dirty. What a metaphor this one is? You can make a thousand conclusions out of it, but the truth is Malupenga knows his dirty garments and secrets are out in the public and people now know about them.
It’s unfortunate that the ‘dirty water;’ he used to quench our thirsty with at The Post is now clean, because it is…
ZWD…
Amos Malupenga should have been appointed a Deputy or full cabinet Minister of Information has the man is clearly a politician and not a civil servant.
Put the journalist on attachment with Zambian Watchdog
Iwe Malupenga ,if they update their website ,they won’t have good sells for hard copies.
Amos you think they can just update their pages Without structure? Its up to you as their master to give them the money and since you are the puppeteer the guidance. State owned media are sleepy and sloppy And won’t embrace new ways of doing things let alone New technology quickly
Put the journalist on attachment with Zambian Watch-dog
Amos, nothing you say will stop us from reading LT and ZWD. However, time and again, we’ll also read the Daily Mail as they appear to be slightly moderate in their reporting. What you call dirty water is not dirty to us, as so far, it has been giving us the news that you would rather suppress.
To sort out the apparent worry about slumping sales of hard copy papers to the free online version, might I suggest they consider going the way the New York Times went and (the media) limit readers to up to 5 article reads or so (hire a programmer with coding experience). But then again there’s the potential issue where customer info could be abused in more ways than just revealing names and other pertinent info to some gov type bigwig bent on revenge. There’s also a is the risk of financial info being misused. Blimey, there goes that idea. Oh by the way, place A LOT of emphasis on grammar my 6 year old can spot your spelling errors or do you really think that’s correct spelling?
Ba Malupenga its not about updating, your newpapers are full of propaganda and that chases away readers. Do not presume people are that dull.
Was I so critical in my earlier comment that LT felt they had to remove it from display? Let me rephrase it then: While the PS is right in saying that they (the media) ought to do regular updates on their stories, I think they ought to make an even stronger effort to publish relevant, well written articles. To address the fear of possibly losing readership of the hardcopy News daily’s they could implement a system similar to what other online versions of print publications – such as the NY Times- that limits the full articles you can read. You’d have to subscribe for full access. I have not researched exactly how it works but the gist of it is that it embeds a script that tracks how many times you view a full article. Get a computer science grad, we have lot’s of those in Zed.
In other words it should work in such a way that people can be tracked so that they can be harassed by the PF police.
Lusaka times simply the best! keep up the good work!
PF should just forget this issue as it will send wrong message to our friends in Western province. How can we justify that PF is for all when you are hounding other tribes. This will be a gift to the Lozi people , with their belief that PF is for Bembas only.
And if Pf cannot hold western province they will not have two thirds majority to pass difficult laws like the constitution.