Government says the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) will be presented to Parliament in the third session of the eleventh national assembly in June this year.
Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Kennedy Sakeni said in an interview yesterday that Government had to first conclude the required procedure before presenting the bill to Parliament.
“There are some procedures that must be followed before presenting a bill to Parliament and this legislative process takes a bit of time to conclude, but we are convinced that the FOI will be tabled in the next sitting of Parliament,” he said.
Mr Sakeni who is also chief Government spokesperson said had it not been for the lengthy consolidation procedure, the FOI would have been presented in the ongoing session that commenced sitting last week.
He urged members of the public to remain patient as the Government was committed to ensuring FOI is implemented.
Some media bodies recently expressed concern over Governments delayed decision to present the FOI to Parliament.
MISA Zambia chapter chairperson Nalumino Nalumino said the organisation was concerned that the Government had not yet been presented the FOI to Parliament.
Mr Nalumino said the chapter had for a long time been championing calls for the freedom of information and desires to see the FOI implemented as soon as possible.
We have not forgotten. June is very near and how many goal posts are you going to change? Constitution, June, FOI, June, we are keenly waiting and have not forgotten the 90 days dream. Ala bamo bakalila mu 2016, from being famous to pit latrine
Sitiza kaibala sure. This bill was supposed to b giving to the public by Malupenga last year June. Since then it has grown both legs and wings. Is it stil going to ever b giving to the public for imput as earlier intended? With so much phobia exhibited by govt on free of speech, we don’t know what 2 expect. In June u wil telling us the public has not participated. What type of sport is pf playing? Goal posts change from soccer to rugby, cricket etc. 2016 I won’t just get involved in voting but decampaigning. Yo failure in 90 days is a good example of yo failure in 5 years. Try as u may,Zambia is not Zimbabwe you won’t succeed Sata to destroy democracy even if with the help herbs from India. There is a God who hears the cry of His people. Herod came n left,Chairman Mao, Suddam,Gadafi…
Zooona mwandi nangu ni politics iyi awe sure. It’s really insulting the intelligence of Zambians. U cant be playing it like hide and seek. Today u say this, tomoro that. You are dealing with humans. Pliz ba PF and Sata, one of the many reasons why zambians voted for u was to do it differently from the previous regimes. You are now making us miss MMD which was equally a bad party. When is Zambia going to be a beacon of admiration in the real sense of the word in Africa?
Just work hard and feed your family.Do you HONESTRY think freedom of information bill will bring food on your table.?
Give Government time to transform Freedom of Information in to Frustration of Information, introduce licence for journalist (to be obtained from nearest PF office), scramble internet, ban Daily Nation…………………..
Ba BA zambia, it will bring better quality of food than we are eating! We were supposed to start eating properly last year and they have told us ati we shall only start in June- nangu wali kosa sure, can you last that long? By the time we get there even the menu would have changed!