Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Dora Siliya has challenged Journalism Profession Union leaders to urgently come up with ways of regulating Journalists.
Ms. Siliya expressed concern that there are currently too many fake Journalists in the Industry who are tarnishing the image of the profession.
This came to light yesterday, when she held a discussion with leaders of the Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ), Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) and the Zambia Union of Broadcasters and Information Disseminators (ZUBID) in her office at Government Complex in Lusaka.
She said it is time the Unions rose to the occasion and come up with standards which will bring dignity to the profession noting that government has waited for too long for journalist in the country to regulate themselves.
The Cabinet Minister stated that if Journalists continue to delay to revive the Media Council of Zambia (MECOZ), government will sit and come up with a framework that will regulate Journalists as it is eager to bring sanity in the media profession.
In response, the Unions assured the Minister that they will soon meet to chart the way forward regarding the resuscitation of MECOZ.
This is contained in a statement made available to ZANIS today by Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Dora Siliya.
This can’t be coming from the mouth of a journalist! Regulating the media is like regulating freedom of speech. It only happens in North Korea, China, Egypt and other totalitarian states. In a democracy government never regulates the media. We need a new minister if not a new government
What a daft girl she is…is this what she studied at UNZA or was she just doing what she does best!!
Did she go to unza? I thought a university teaches concepts like freedom of speech.Then she was taught nothing
A column by George Claassen, of News24 in his article titled, “Fake news and the natural selection of ignorance” recently wrote, a decade after the multiple award-winning British journalist Nick Davies warned that the mass media are acting more like a global village idiots, highly ignorant and easily taken for a ride, fake news has become a common phenomenon. In Flat Earth News, Davies analyzed the dangers threatening the vital role the media generally fulfill in democracies.
He wrote, one of the fundamental functions of the media is to educate and, through education, to enlighten. He quotes Davies who believed as that the media have, to a large extent, reneged on their function to educate. He asks why a profession would lose touch with its primary function so that truth-telling…
Is she talking of those from ZNBC, times of Zambia and their daily mail.
Somehow it seems that the easiest way of running away from the truth is branding factual news as as fake news and the author is labled a fake Journalist.
We urge government to jist try and do the right thing and let the constitution be the guiding legislation. If government is delinquent what options are left for the ordinary citizenry? Government by abrogating the constitution has sanctioned lawlessness and consequently a breach of ethics. That is straight forward. The Citizens need to know what the leadership is upto because they are heavily taxed and expect sober governance.
One day you are on your knees begging for a vote and after getting to that office you become arrogant and insensitive to the masses’ plight. What do yoi expect in all honesty?
It was the power of the media that helped perpetrate the Rwandan Genocide. It was the power of the media that the Nazis used to keep the population in check while they performed the Holocaust on the Jews. The media in Zambia today is mostly responsible for the tribalism, negativity and hate that has gripped the nation. Even Facebook founder Zuckerburg admitted last week on CNN that his platform was abused by negative and radical elements for wrong things; He certainly acknowledged the need for regulation. Dora is on spot, there’s massive abuse of the media in Zambia. Regulation is long overdue.
Those who are not journalist will condemn Hon.Dora Siliya..If you are a real trained jourlist from a recognised University or College why are you scared of being regulated.. Every profession has ethics to follow..
Its been long over due..let’s have sanity order and truth
I am no JuJu-list but I believe the Regulation terminology may be on the path of abuse itself.
What we need is to control fake news and lies; is Minister proposing that these crimes and their trickle down and/or up effects cannot be dealt with by other available legislation especially CAPs 87 and 88 the Laws of Zambia.
Lets pursue freedoms of speech and others in line with the Constitution.
I agree that the fifth estate – Media if abused can and is causing a lot of problems to those entrusted to govern and to even the governed.