By JAMES KUNDA –
PANOS Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) has called for the creation of a Zambia Community Media Act that will spell out the functions and duties of the community media in Zambia.
PSAf executive director Lillian Kiefer said despite Zambia having one of the largest number of community radio stations in Southern Africa, there was no specific law recognising that this was a non-profit making media sector striving to provide a service free of charge.
Ms Kiefer said this when she appeared before the Parliamentary select committee on Information and Broadcasting chaired by Kasempa Member of Parliament Kabinga Pande.
This is contained in a statement released yesterday by PSAf programme manager for media development and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Elias Banda.
“Community radio focuses on issues that concern the community, using languages that are spoken in those areas and engages the local communities in the designing and production of local radio programmes on agriculture, poverty reduction, health, education and provision of vital information on government services in those areas.
“Community media provide a platform for informed debate and discussion in their promotion of good governance in the country,” she said.
Ms Kiefer said it was for this reason that there was need to provide legislation that would among other things prescribe the way this sector would operate and guarantee its existence.
“As PSAf we would go further and ask that Parliament sets up legislation that will form a community media fund that will be independently managed and from which community radios would apply to be assisted in improving their delivery of community services by upgrading their broadcast equipment and building the capacity of their staff,” she said.
Ms Kiefer said PSAf was hopeful that the operationalisation of the Independent Broadcasting Act would normalise the operation of the broadcast sector and stop the persistent harassment of community media journalists by those in authority.