He wrote;
ZANIS TV
Congratulations to ZANIS for launching ZANIS TV.
When I had the privilege to serve as Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services in 2013, I felt strongly that government and ruling party officials abuse and downgrade ZNBC which should by law, be a public broadcaster in the fashion of BBC or SABC, hence the introduction of direct funding by the ZNBC Act of 2002 through public tv licence fees.
The newsrooms of state-owned media degenerate to an unprofessional status of extensions of ruling party’s media teams.
We immediately introduced ZANIS NEWS on ZNBC TV, with preparations to own radio and tv channels.
ZANIS is supposed to be the Public Relations Wing of the State to help communicate national development, government policies, programs and actions and also serve to promote national unity, peace and security through producing documentaries of historical and current affairs, while ZNBC should serve all without distinction or discrimination.
The ZNBC Act provided for an independent board ratified by Parliament to help with both security of tenure of it and the Director General it’s expected to hire through an independent and competitive process.
Sadly through-out the period of its enactment, the State has largely interfered with the independence of ZNBC with this process and subsequent operations.
And legacy media like Times and Zambia Daily Mail were designed as independent firms earning revenues from advertising, subscriptions, and sale of copyrighted material.
ZANIS is supposed to be the answer to mass media with government interest and direct state funding.
I equally salute the organisation for recognising and honouring the hard working Cameraman, Fidelis Mulenga.
