By 
The government has denied reports that it had initiated the process of enacting the Zambia Institute of Journalists (ZIJ) Bill or generated any cabinet memo to indicate any intention to initiate such a bill.
Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, said the bill was instead initiated by private Journalists who were seeking a modification of the Zambia Media Council Bill which was withdrawn by the government because of the inconsistencies.
Mweetwa was responding to reports that the government had embarked on a process to enact the ZIJ Bill during a media briefing in Choma, Southern Province on Sunday.
He assured the Media Owners Association of Zambia that the government shall not take any step whatsoever to begin an initiation of a process leading to media statutory regulation whatsoever, “Unless and until, if need be, there was consensus between media stakeholder players and one which must be agreeable upon themselves and with the Ministry as facilitator and not initiator,” Mweetwa said.
He stated that the Ministry of Information and Media was taken aback to find that media bodies had ascribed to under sign to a statement that is calling on the government not to go ahead with a purported Zambia Institute of Journalism bill.
Mweetwa said the Ministry has got nothing to do with the Zambia Institute of Journalists bill in terms of its conceptualization, initiation and intended objective of creating a professional body to be regulated like any other professional body.
Read More: Media bodies reject proposed journalism bill, call for strengthened self-regulation
“Government remains committed to ensuring that whatever laws or bill it is going to promote, all relevant stakeholders will be engaged beforehand,” he assured.
Additionally, the government was aware that some stakeholders had received the cyber security law with mixed feelings asserting that the cyber security law was intended to begin to breach the privacy of citizens.
Mweetwa stated that to the contrary, the law was meant to protect citizen as there had been a lot of abuse of the cyber space relating to cyber bullying and scamming.
“Government through the Ministries of Information and Media and Justice will soon start sensitizing the public on the importance of the recently passed Cuber Security law,” he said.
WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.
Comments