MISA Zambia has embarked on a project to look into the regulation of the Zambia National Broadcasting Authority (ZNBC) by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).
Speaking at the first stakeholders consultative meeting for the project, MISA Chairperson Hellen Mwale says the strategic objective of this project is to initiate a campaign to have ZNBC which is a public broadcaster regulated by an independent body which in this case is the IBA.
In a speech read for her by her Vice Elizabeth Chanda, Ms Mwale says the major focus of the undertaking will be to analyse the possibilities of merging the IBA Act of 2010 and the ZNBC Act of 2010 in a bid to see how the two pieces of legislation can bring into existence, an independent broadcasting regulator that will meet the public interest.
She adds that the project should be viewed as a valuable undertaking in order to develop the media landscape.
And IBA Legal Counsel, Kanyembo Zulu says her organisations has so far formulated and drafted 12 Regulations which are summarised in the Standard Operating Procedure Manual and they wish to incorporate it into the new Law.
Mrs. Zulu says IBA is happy with this great initiative as it is in line with what her organisation has been doing in a bid to amend the IBA Act of 2010.
She adds that the government being a key stakeholder has given full support to the thought of having all broadcasting licencees including ZNBC be regulated by IBA.
Among the stakeholders present were; the Press Association of Zambia, Zambia Union of Journalists, Women in Law, Council of Churches in Zambia, the Law association of Zambia, Zambia Governance Foundation, BBC Media Action, Caritas Zambia and many others.
