Media organisations in Zambia are staging a five-day campaign this week to lobby for the proposed Freedom of Information Bill to be brought before the current session of Parliament.
This follows government claims that the law needs to be revised.
Groups that have taken up cudgels on behalf of the Bill include the Press Association of Zambia (Paza), the Zambian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), the Zambia Media Women’s Association (Zamwa), the Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) and the Society for Senior Zambian Journalists (SSZJ).
Speaking at a joint press briefing, the groups said they would not allow the government to get away with brushing aside a Bill that, when enacted, could assist journalists who are fighting to uncover corruption in Zambia.
Paza spokesperson Amos Chanda noted that the Bill was central to maintaining democracy in the country.
”People need to know what government does with their taxes,” Chanda said. ”They need to know how it governs, what agreements it signs on their behalf with the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank. It is about having an open and transparent society.”
Kellys Kaunda, chairperson of Misa in Zambia, added that delays in the Bill’s passage were giving cause for concern.
”We are suspicious of government’s handling of the Bill, which has gone through all the processes in Parliament and is at committee stage, waiting to be enacted. This was to have been done last year. Now we are hearing all sorts of ridiculous excuses,” he said.
Information Minister Mutale Nalumango told media executives recently that the Bill had some ”fundamental errors” and needed ”further consultation”.
She declined to elaborate on what these errors were, saying the issues had been discussed among Cabinet colleagues whose deliberations were ”privileged information”. — Sapa-IPS