. Katema

By XAVIER MANCHISHI –

ONLINE media should not be used to stir hatred, Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Joseph Katema has said.

While acknowledging that the internet had improved the delivery of information, Dr Katema cautioned against using the medium to disseminate hate messages and stir tribal conflict.

Dr Katema was responding to questions from the audience after he delivered a keynote address at a panel discussion organised by the Zambian Mission to the United Nations and the Centre for Media and Peace Initiatives under the theme: ‘Reconstruction of Journalism: Credibility and Identity Crises in the Fourth Estate’, at UN Headquarters.

Dr Katema, who is also Chief Government Spokesperson, observed that some online publishers hide behind anonymity, and remain a secret society without a thread of journalism pAccording to a statement by First Secretary for Press and Public Relations at Zambia’s Permanent Mission at the UN, Chibaula Silwamba, Dr Katema said Government had remained consistent with its call to journalists to be ethical.

He appealed to stakeholders to support training of journalists in media ethics and law adding that journalists are highly respected world-over, and urged them to maintain the public trust.

“The Zambian Government, as a protector of its citizens’ rights and well-being, is concerned as the mudslinging, insulting and defamation is definitely not in any way a semblance of elite journalism,” he said.

In his keynote address, the minister said online media has brought Citizen Journalism.

Dr Katema said journalists have an impeccable duty of seeking the truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of issues.

He said journalists must be free of any hindrances and partiality in reporting.

“When political, economic or any other obligations of interests creep in, professional integrity and credibility of journalists is compromised,” Dr Katema said.

Speaking at the same event, former public officer of the UN Information Centre in Australia Carole Marchal and CMPI president Dr Uchenna Ekwo agreed with Dr Katema that journalists must adhere to the laws and ethics to reconstruct the image of the media industry.

The meeting which was attended by journalists, scholars, civil society activists, lawyers, students and other stakeholders was organised on the sidelines of the on-going 36th Session of the UN Committee on Information and to commemorate World Press Freedom Day.