THE Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter has just drafted a document containing laws that it feels should be amended in the Penal Code to promote Press freedom.
According to MISA Zambia Chapter chairperson Helen Mwale, some laws in the Penal Code are archaic and no longer apply to the dispensation of a free media.
The document is now in the hands of the Zambia Law Development Commission, Justice Minister Ngosa Simbyakula and his counterpart from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, Chishimba Kambwili.
Some of the provisions we feel need to be amended or removed altogether include the prohibited publications, seditious practices and defamation of the President.
Others are publication of false news, obscene materials, libel and the Public Order Act.
I was part of the recent discussion pertaining to the proposal by MISA and felt that this week; I should revisit the topic on Press freedom as part of advocacy to this fresh case that has been made before the Government.
Young journalists in particular are finding it hard to work in the current environment because these laws seem to deliberately make their work hard.
The current scenario under which members of the Press are operating in Zambia today falls short of satisfying and needs urgent attention.
Numerous examples are there for the public to see and this raises some concerns on the delays by Government to table the Access to Information Bill (ATI) in Parliament.
Without the ATI, journalists are deprived of their full right of access to gather and disseminate information.
Though the current Constitution grants freedom of expression to every member of the public including journalists, there is still a deficiency in policies protecting the rights of media practitioners.
Journalists deserve the consent to report about any issue of human interest regardless of the parties involved.
Press freedom should out rightly give journalists the go-ahead to report freely without third party interference from those outside the Journalism profession.
The local press, especially State owned cannot criticise the Government of the day thus depriving the public of information one way or the other.
Self-censorship is one of the elements threatening the growth of the Zambian media industry today because journalists fail to publish information for fear of what my happen to them.
Publishing any information critical of the ruling Government at any time spells grave consequences for journalists and this impedes professionalism.
A free Press is vital to development because it helps people make informed decisions when they are faced with hard hitting circumstances in life.
Government needs to expedite the pace of removing the shackles that still inhibit the freedom of information for the press in Zambia to operate freely.
Government must promote the enactment of laws that guarantee a favourable operating environment for the Press because quick implementation of these reforms will guarantee freedom of information for all.
If the ATI was in placer, some of the concerns I have registered could not talked about today, however, the situation is different and the advocacy must be strengthened.
According to University of Zambia (UNZA) Mass Communication lecturer Gerald Mwale observed that young journalists were finding it hard to negotiate laws that were inhibiting the work of journalists.
Journalists should collaborate and ensure that laws affecting their work were done away with in the new Draft Constitution.
Former Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Joseph Katema once implored journalists to continue ‘making noise’ and one day Government will listen!
The will of the media is that any law inimical to media freedom is decriminalised.

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