STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA suffered on BBC’s HARDTalk earlier on.26 Mr Expendito Chipalo also wrote a letter to Editor to comment on the interview.27 In reality there was absolutely no need for the UPND to seek permission to have its leader feature on ZNBC television or radio for an interview. The ZNBC has always proudly dubbed itself the “public service broadcaster” (PSB). And best practices of public service broadcasting are premised on principles of diversity, distinctiveness, independence and universality. The last mentioned is the principle that requires that a true PSB must be accessible to every citizen throughout the country. The principle forces the PSB to address the entire population and seek to be “used” by the largest possible number.28 Of course over the years ZNBC television viewers of the Sunday Interview have been accustomed to seeing interviews, including repeated ones, of personalities from the ruling party the Patriotic Front to the exclusion of personages from other political parties. It was inconceivable that a member of parliament could even suggest that the ZNBC was exclusively for use by the ruling party, the Patriotic Front. Lunte PF Member of Parliament Mr Mutotwe Kafwaya has told Parliament on 11 November 2017 that ZNBC was only for government officials because opposition political parties who did not have policies would waste the national broadcaster’s airtime talking about presidential petitions which did not exist. During the 2018 budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Mr Kafwaya said that the ZNBC should not be allowed to air any views from the opposition parties. He supported the trend whereby the ZNBC excluded coverage of opposition party players. He said that many people when referring to ZNBC said that the institution only showed the President, the Vice President, Ministers and government officials to the exclusion of other players because they did not carry government policy. 26 DN HH misused ZNBC interview, political analyst 20 December 2017 p.3. DN HH Grevazio Zulu Interview 20 December 2017 p.22 28 UNESCO (2005), Public Service Broadcasting: A Best Practices Sourcebook pp15-16 27 15