Jere said the move follows several requests from the media houses to be included in the Presidential delegations going for key international events. He however said reporters from the private media will be included on a rotational basis due to financial constraints.

Jere told Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in a statement in reaction to a story carried by The Post Newspapers that said State House was eyeing MUVI TV to cover President Banda at the Africa Union (AU) Summit. The story also said that President Banda is only interested in MUVI TV to cover his trip leaving out the other private media outlets and the national broadcaster. Jere said to the contrary, President Banda will include the private media in addition to the ZANIS, which distributes stories to all media outlets in the country in his delegation to the AU Heads of State and government’s extraordinary summit in Addis Ababa Ethiopian in January 2010. He said the reporters from the state owned Times of Zambia, and Zambia Daily Mail newspapers, ZNBC and community radio stations in Zambia will be also be included on a rotational basis to cover key international events.

“I wish to reiterate that State House will continue including reporters from public, private and community media on the presidential delegation to key international events. Reporters working for the public and private media are all Zambians and should therefore be given the opportunity to cover their head of state on key international engagements such as the Africa Union Summit” he said.

Jere clarified that the President went with a crew from QFM to Mozambique during the SADC Troika meeting held on 15th January 2010. He said it was therefore erroneous and misleading for The Post to insinuate that President Banda is only interested in MUVI TV at the expense of other media outlets.

The Post Newspaper of 19 January 2010 published a story saying that some inside sources at state house revealed to them that President Banda wanted MUVI TV to be covering him where ever he goes and the government would be footing the bills.
 
“Strangely, ZNBC which is a government owned institution, its journalists nowadays do not accompany the President abroad, ZNBC gets news reports from Zambia News and Information Service (ZANIS), unless they travel on their own and pay their own bills and that is usually on local trips. So we are wondering why the President is interested in MUVI TV, leaving out other private media outlets,” The insider was quoted by The Post.  //End//

Reagan Malumo
Programme Officer: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht St
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek
Namibia
Phone: +264 61 232 975
Fax: +264 61 248 016
Mobile: +264 81 311 2626

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