Minister dissolves state media boards

Newly appointed Zambian minister of information and broadcasting services, Vernon Mwaanga has dissolved the boards of the two state-owned daily newspapers, the national radio and television broadcaster, as well as a government-owned printing company, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said on Tuesday. Mwaanga said in a press statement on 21 May that he was dissolving the boards of the ‘Zambia Daily Mail’ and ‘Times of Zambia’ newspapers, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and the Zambia Printing Company respectively, “to build public confidence in our media operators and restore the sense of responsibility and accountable journalism through the provision of training, retraining and good conditions of service”. MISA quoted Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA) chairperson Masautso Phiri as saying that he did not think that the problems facing the state-owned media could be solved by simply dissolving their boards each time a new minister was appointed. He called for the de-linking of the state-owned media from the government through either full privatisation or reducing government’s share holding to a minimum. “ZIMA believes that for a lasting solution to the problems of the state media, they need to be freed from the control of the minister of information, who together with the rest of the government uses them as propaganda organs,” Phiri said. However, according to MISA, Zambia Union of Journalists president Angels Banda welcomed the dissolution of the boards and hoped the new ones would be more accountable.