MISA ZAMBIA DENIES VEEP’S CLAIM THAT IT HAS GANGED UP WITH OTHER NGOS AGAINST GOVERNMENT

PRESS STATEMEMNT

24^th June, 2011

MISA Zambia Denies Veep’s Claim That It Has Ganged Up With Other NGOs Against Government

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia has received with great disappointment and sadness, news that Vice-President George Kunda accused the organisation of lacking credibility and ganging up with other Civil Society Organisations, to tarnish the image of the government.

It is most disheartening that the Vice-President used the high pedestal of parliament to denounce MISA Zambia; knowing fully well that the organisation was not in a position to defend itself from such an attack.

In order to restore mutual confidence between MISA Zambia and the government, we have written to the Vice-President today, June 24^th 2011, requesting an urgent audience with him. This will enable us discuss in detail his concerns over our work. We look forward to meeting the Vice-President soon.

For the record, we wish to state that MISA Zambia works to promote a sustainable, non-partisan, independent, plural and diverse media that informs and empowers society, promotes democracy, good governance, freedom of expression and media freedom in an ethical, competent and professional manner.

Our mandate entails that we conduct on-going research and advocacy into the media in Zambia, including the state of media freedom in the country. These activities result in an annual publication called “So this is Democracy?” which is a survey of media freedom in all the SADC countries where MISA has Chapters.

In the 2010 edition of “So this is Democracy?” Zambia was found to have recorded the second highest cases of media freedom violations in the SADC region, second to Zimbabwe.

When we compile these statistics, we look at the number of times journalists are harassed, beaten, detained, jailed, threatened or suffer any other impediment in their work.

We would like to urge people concerned with the methodology of “So this is Democracy?” to carefully study and understand how the statistics are compiled, before dismissing the findings. Our research methodology is proven and is based on reported cases of media violations that are in the public domain.

In conclusion, we would like to restate that MISA Zambia considers Government as a partner in national development.

Nalumino Nalumino

Acting Chairperson