By Ernest Chanda
In January 2019, the PF government resumed threats to regulate the media if the media did not regulate themselves. In say ‘resumed’ because the MMD administration had also done the same several times.
In fact, government had already in 2019 drafted the Bill to regulate the media. But while these threats were being pronounced, journalists, under the auspices of the Media Liaison Committee (MLC), had been refining the Zambia Media Council (ZAMEC). And so, the MLC approached the then Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, Mr Chanda Kasolo to explain its role in the welfare of journalists. The interaction helped his government understand the implications of government formulating a bill to regulate the media. This resulted in the government allowing the media fraternity to choose their own way of regulating themselves. 
To help mitigate the process, the Swedish government, in collaboration with the leadership at one of its projects – the International Training Programme (ITP) – stepped in. The ITP initially approached the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambian Chapter to spearhead the process of engaging government. But the Swedish government opined that a local media body would be ideal to spearhead the process since MISA was certainly not a local body but just a regional chapter. That’s how the then ITP Coordinator Mr Oliver Kanene proposed to the Swedish government that the MLC led the process, seeing that it is a local and member driven organisation. Mr Kanene approached then MLC Chairperson Mr Enock Ngoma and explained the help the Swedish government wanted to render in the media regulation process. Prior to that, the Swedish government had invited different stakeholders at different times ton get their views in view of government threats. It must be placed on record that during these engagements, the Swedish government and all affiliate NGOs were comfortable with statutory self-regulation.
Later, the MLC agreed to lead the process. The MLC was also tasked to form a Technical Working Group that would prepare for a general conference for journalists. The Swedish government was going to fund the process through BBC Media Action, while MISA Zambia became the secretariat. Hence, on May 9-10, 2019, the journalism fraternity held its first Conference or Indaba to decide how they wished to regulate themselves. About 250 journalists were invited from all media institutions, associations and trade union movements across the country. The Conference was held at Golden Peacock Hotel in Lusaka, Olympia Extension.
At this conference, the Technical Working Group on media regulation (TWG) invited two international media experts who each gave a presentation on the various forms of media regulation. One expert from Kenya, Professor Mwangi, presented on statutory self-regulation, while his South African counterpart, Professor Franz Kruger, presented on voluntary self-regulation. It must be noted that Kenya had just created a media regulatory body through an Act of Parliament, hence the rationale for inviting Prof Mwangi. The committee also invited four local experts to share on the history of media regulation in Zambia, challenges and the way forward.
It was at this gathering where journalists eventually resolved unanimously to regulate themselves through a statutory body created by the media fraternity itself. The MLC’s TWG was therefore tasked to engage stakeholders in drafting a layman’s ZAMEC Bill, which was later submitted to government. In May 2020, a second Conference was held at the same venue where the TWG reported the progress it had made on the task given to it b y the media fraternity. Again, journalists validated all the progress made, no one changed their mind, including MISA, BBC Media Action, and MOAZ. In June 2021, the TWG and government reached a stalemate during a virtual meeting where it was discovered that government had expanded the Bill and made it draconian.
In April 2022, stakeholders held a meeting under the auspices of the MLC at Cheetah Lodge in Kafue where it was resolved that media regulation be narrowed to journalists only, excluding media institutions. This meeting was also sponsored by the Swedish government through the Swedish International Development Corporation (SIDA). The rationale was that for the electronic media they were already being regulated by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). It was therefore only prudent to isolate individual journalists from media institutions.
However, other stakeholders pulled out of the process, claiming that with the change of government it would be possible to proceed the voluntary way. These three stakeholders were MISA Zambia, Media Owners Association, and BBC Media Action. They have since proceeded to form a voluntary self-regulatory body. But the majority journalists have, through the MLC, still been pushing for a statutory self-regulatory mechanism.
In May 2024, the MLC sat with officials from the Ministry of Information and Media to validate the ZAMEC Bill that had been drafted by experts from the Ministry of Justice. This was done at Mika Lodge in Lusaka’s Jesmondine. And early this year, upon advice from the Ministry of Justice, the name was changed from ZAMEC to the Zambia Institute of Journalists (ZIJ). The rationale was that since this regulatory body will not be regulating media institutions but just individual journalists, it was necessary to change its name to ZIJ.
On Thursday, April 3, 2025, the MLC held a validation meeting with legal drafters from the Attorney General’s Chambers. The meeting was chaired by Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha, State Counsel. And this was not initiated by government b ut by journalists through the MLC. Other stakeholders were also invited, including media training institutions such as universities and colleges. There was no need of inviting MOAZ, BBC Media Action and MISA because they had already gone their way with voluntary regulation. We discussed this bill for over eight hours and later validated it with amendments.
With this brief summary, it is clear that the government has had no hand in this ZIJ Bill. It is purely a fulfillment of great demand from majority journalists who wanted respect for their profession as well as a stronger voice through a respected professional body. Besides, journalists wanted a body that would promote their welfare, including remunerations. Proponents of voluntary regulation are also aware that the voluntary process has failed the country three time before, hence the journalists’ resolve in 2019 to draft a law for themselves.
The big question is, are they really rejecting this bill in the interest of the journalism profession? Seeing that these colleagues have go0ne ahead with their process, why interfere with other people’s process? Anyway, time will tell.
The author is a journalist and immediate past Media Liaison Committee Chairperson.
