MISA Zambia urges PF administration to "practice what it preaches' The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia has called this press briefing in order to respond to Honourable Fackson Shamenda's statement that the public media in Zambia are free. MISA Zambia would like to acknowledge that to some degree the state-owned media have been free to report on various issues and have not been regularly placing stories in a hierarchical manner which used to characterize state owned media news coverage in the past. MISA Zambia has noted with gratitude the change in state-owned media coverage of various issues in the country such as the reports that have exposed to an extent how delayed referral systems in the health sector in Zambia are impacting the health of ordinary citizens outside of the capital city through exposing two cases of which one turned out in a sad way among others. The front pages of the two state owned media (The Times of Zambia and The Daily Mail) have featured various people from various walks of life from ordinary citizens to our soccer heroes to some extent. However, MISA Zambia would like to urge the Patriotic Front (PF) led government not to provide this freedom through mere pronouncements because this is very much subject to change. As MISA Zambia we have been advocating media law reforms for years now and such pronouncements have been made before by new presidents or new regimes but very little change took place in terms of laws and policies governing and facilitating the existence of public media. For instance when the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) came to power they promised that they would liberalise the media and outlined this in its manifesto but failed to enact the Freedom of Information Bill since it came into power in 1991 in addition to failing to fully implement the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Act of 2002 and never implemented the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act of 2002. And to rub salt to the wound the same party that ushered in multiparty democracy changed its mind on laws that would facilitate democracy and removed critical provisions in two progressive broadcast laws in 2010. These provisions were the Appointments Committees. While they instituted several constitutional processes nothing tangible came to fruition and we ended up with a very bad Draft Constitution in 2010 in terms of media freedom and access to information. Notwithstanding the above, there was media proliferation under the MMD that saw over 45 radio stations and about a dozen television stations established. Ladies and gentlemen, in light of the above, MISA Zambia thought it prudent to call this briefing and urge the PF government to 'practice what you preach' by guaranteeing freedom to state owned media through laws and not mere pronouncements. Ladies and gentlemen, we understand that the government has intentions to implement the IBA Act, however, this will not entirely free the public media airwaves if the Appointments Committee is not reinstated in this law. The government should as part of its commitment to free state-owned media in Zambia reinstate the Appointments Committees. That is the surest way to bring about public media in Zambia. And we are certain that the rationale behind government's pronouncement to operationalise the IBA is an absolute need for the government of the day to distance itself from controlling or influencing the acquisition of broadcast stations their administration, their editorial independence as well as their programming. They want to leave such control and influence to an independent body, which is not answerable to the government of the day. However, this cannot be attained if the appointments committee is not reinstated back in the law because power will still rest mainly in the hands of the Minister of Information thereby eroding the intentions of the PF government's pronouncements that it has liberated the state-owned media. Ladies and gentlemen the removal of the appointments committee from playing a role in appointing the members of the IBA board, is in actual fact stockpiling power and authority on the minister to appoint the board directly. This has the potential to raise serious doubts on the independence and integrity of the board in relation to its ability to operate without undue pressure from the government through the minister, who would be the appointing authority. We therefore urge the government to ensure that it also reinstates that Appointments Committee in the ZNBC Act for the same reasons. Further, MISA Zambia would like to call on the government to provide for 65 percent shares in the two print media and not 35 percent because this will still place control of the two newspapers under the government. We believe that the PF government mean well and will be able to address some of the gaps that exist and put in place laws to facilitate free public media in Zambia which by international broadcasting standards at the moment do not exist in Zambia. Ladies and gentlemen, before I conclude my address, MISA Zambia would also like to state that it is deeply concerned about the recent spate of harassment of media practitioners by the Zambia Police. We are saddened at the continued detention and harassment of journalists and confiscation of equipment when journalists are covering public events. So far three known cases have been reported and in two instances police confiscated the journalists equipment and nearly erased the material recorded. Ladies and gentlemen, MISA Zambia is however grateful to the Inspector General of Police whom it has written to, seeking audience over the matter and she has acknowledged receipt of our correspondence. It is our hope that the meeting with the IG will put to an end the harassment of media practitioners by the Police. Daniel Sikazwe MISA Zambia Chairperson