Media Association of Zambia Bill ready by 31st March – Siliya

Information and Broadcasting Service Minister Chief Dora Siliya says the Media Association of Zambia Bill will be ready by 31st March, 2019.

Ms. Siliya says once this Bill is enacted, a media association through which media practitioners and media owners shall regulate themselves will be established.

She says government is therefore reaching out to stakeholders to formulate the Bill to establish the statutory media association.

Ms. Siliya, who is also Chief Government Spokesperson says the association will ensure that media practitioners do not abandon what they have been trained to do.

She states that the association will investigate and impose sanctions on all those that shall be found to be departing from their journalism ethics.

Ms. Siliya was speaking in a speech read for her by Acting Director for press and media development in her ministry Morden Mayembe during the opening of a News Diggers media training programme in Lusaka.

Speaking at the same event, British High Commissioner to Zambia Fergus Cochrane-Dyet observed that a free media environment is essential to Zambia’s democracy.

Mr. Cochrane-Dyet says without this environment, there is no effective accountability of those in power.

And in a speech read for her by United Nations National Information Officer Mark Maseko, UN Resident Coordinator Janet Rogan noted the need for the media to exercise high standards of truthfulness, accuracy and fairness in their reporting.

Ms. Rogan states that this is in order that the media maintains its credibility as the fourth estate.