journalists can do their job to a high editorial standard without unnecessary restrictions and fear of sanctions and censorship. Others, like the Media Owners Association of Zambia issued the following: ‘…..The media owners believe that media self-regulation must be carried to the latter and in word without cosmetics. Therefore, we are not surprised that the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia and BBC Media Action have taken this path of leaving the technical working group. Without MISA Zambia and the BBC Media Action in the technical working group, we wonder who the Media Liaison Committee (MLC) is representing in the media self- regulation process in Zambia. What we understand is that the Media Liaison Committee was an organizing committee for the World Press Day drawn from various media houses and representatives were supposed to rotate each successive year, based on nominations from media owners. Therefore, the permanent leadership representative in the Media Liaison Committee has left the group without true membership from media owners and workers. This is the reason Media Owners rarely participate in the Media Liaison Committee meetings. We therefore wonder which media organizations are represented by the MLC and from which body they draw the mandate to represent the media in Zambia, if the media owners and or their media houses are neither involved nor privy to the said Committee. As media owners, we are opposed to the final draft of the Zambia Media Council Bill which the Media Liaison Committee has resubmitted to the Ministry of Information and Media to be taken to Parliament. This is because we have noticed a number of clauses that are detrimental to the development of the media space in Zambia, and if left unchecked, we may find ourselves creating a monster that will create problems for the media in Zambia. We believe, like lawyers and medical doctors, media personnel cannot be subjected to punishment by people who know little about the profession through an Act of Parliament. As major stakeholders in the media landscape, we would like to engage with the Ministry of Information and Media (MIM) and the Ministry of Justice on media self-regulation and the current dangers in the final draft of the Zambia Media Council Bill. The Media owners want an ideal self-regulation mechanism which will protect the profession rather than drive fear in the journalists and other workers whose job is to inform, entertain and educate the public. In this world where democracies are promoting freedom of speech, it will be a sad day to subject free thinkers to laws which threaten their standing because of jail time and other practices which limit their public participation. 19