STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA As stated already, the debate on enactment of the ATI has been ongoing since the year 2002. Before the Patriotic Front (PF) government came into power, it promised to enact the Access to Information Bill. For more than seven years, the debate for the bill has raged on. In November 2011 shortly after assuming power, the then Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Given Lubinda said government was committed to enacting the bill into law. In February 2012, the then Permanent Secretary in the same Ministry Mr. Amos Malupenga said the bill would be presented to Parliament. In July 2013, the then Minister of Information, Mr. Kennedy Sakeni, also assured the nation that the bill would be presented to parliament. To date, the bill has only gone up to the Cabinet approval stage. Despite scoring on the approval of the bill by Cabinet, government has been taken to task on the publication of the contents of the bill. Stakeholders have argued that the contents of the bill should be publicised so that the public is kept in the know. Meanwhile, MISA Zambia in the period under review was quoted by The New Vision Newspaper Publication under the headline: “do not be troubled over Access to Information (ATI) Bill, MISA urges citizens” The MISA Zambia National Director Mr. Austin Kayanda assured citizens saying: “citizens [should] not to be troubled because the Access to information Bill, which is yet to be presented to Parliament for enactment, has not been doctored and will be tabled in the House in its original draft form” The MISA National Director Austin Kayanda argued that the media body was pleased with the contents of the Bill because nothing has been tempered with other than updating what was originally drafted. “I cannot disclose its content at this stage, but from what I was given and deliberated upon, as MISA Zambia we are happy with the bill because it has not been doctored. I can assure the nation that if what I saw is the same content that is going to be presented in the parliament then we are happy with it,” Kayanda said. As regards the continued delay in enactment of the Bill, the MISA National Director said that there is urgent need to ensure that the bill is enacted into law because its benefits are for the betterment of all Zambians journalists and ordinary citizens alike. “Just like other bills of national importance have been enacted at supersonic speed, we need the same political will towards the Access to Information Bill,” he said. He made an appeal to government through the ministries of Justice and Information and Broadcasting to ensure the long awaited Access to Information Bill is enacted into law. 9