NAMAKANDO TO BLAME FOR MEDIA POLARISATION

By SUFZ Staff

A cross section of journalists has advised members of the public not to blame the government but Post Newspaper’s Fred Namakando M’membe for the polarisation of the media in the country.

This comes in the wake of the debate on media coverage by both the public and private outlets ahead of the 2011 general elections.

Journalists, senior and Junior, who spoke on condition of anonymity observed that the stance by The Post to support the Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata disregarding objective reporting had split  the media in the country.

The Journalists stated that The Post, founded in 1991, had departed from its founding principles and had now turned into a shadow political party through which its owner Fred Namakando M’membe wanted to enjoy unfettered power to control the President of Zambia.

This is the role M’membe has plotted to play in the guise of running an independent newspaper after the late president Fredrick Chiluba crushed his political ambitions in 1991.

M’membe, a founding member of the MMD, was part of his uncle-Arthur Wina’s political team-when the party was formed.

Wina who married Inonge- the current PF Chairperson- and one of M’membe’s few trusted relatives, was eyeing the MMD presidency which went Dr. Chiluba’s way.

The shattered dream becoming part of the first elite team surrounding the Multi-party president culminated into a bitter struggle on the part of Namakando against Dr. Chiluba.

Through the newspaper, M’membe built an empire, initially aimed at growing the private media and contributing to national development into a vehicle for cunningly influencing the political paradigm of the country.

M’membe went on to questionably acquire majority shares in The Post for the purpose of becoming an absolute owner and enjoy unlimited leverage on its operations.  In that bid, he has seemingly succeeded.

Since the acquisition of the majority share holding in the Post, Shrewdly knocking off the likes of Ronald Penza, Enock Kavindele, and Baldwin Nkumbula and to some extent Anderson mazoka, the company’s direction began to take a great shift.

There are no prizes for guessing how this happened but senior journalists conversant with media development have attested that it was a wicked scheme from start to finish.

In wanting an indirect share of political power by disguising the newspaper as the “Voice of the voiceless,” M’membe has acquired individual wealth.

This, according to sources, led to rapid expansion of the Post leading to the acquisition of shares in among other companies the defunct Zambian Airways.

“ There was an issue of a mobile provider company he wanted to start but the communications authority can tell a better story.  He also became a big contractor transporting maize for FRA,” the source revealed.

“If the one at the State House plays to M’membe’s tune, he throws away professionalism.  The man also wants to have a hand recommending key appointments the Head of State makes.”

Apparently, M’membe savours in blackmailing people if given the opportunity, he wants to influence appointments of the Director of Public Prosecution, Solicitor General, Attorney General and managing directors at parastatal companies.

“Assuming President Banda was to wake up one day and push the line pleasing M’membe, the reporting and his stance will definitely change.  Zambians have seen this before from the same organisation,” the source said.

The journalists said The Post had become more of a political player than a media house.

“At the moment the government finds the public media as the major avenue to discuss their programmes and correctly inform the public in case matters of public importance are distorted by The Post.

“If you have observed, The Post is biased.  It does not balance its coverage at all,” the source said.

Journalists said the post’s current style had created fertile ground for Public media to expose government’s developmental works to the public.

“The Post has given a blind eye to the outstanding development work seen in the country recently.  Look at the infrastructural development, look at the performance of the economy, and just look at how many roads, schools and health centres have been built.  To the Post, all this is failure on the part of President Banda.

“If President Banda wants to tell the people what The post has conveniently ignored, it becomes abuse of the media in the eyes of M’membe,” the source added.  The source also said The Post had exposed its bias and had no morals to discuss their counterparts in the public media.

“Mr. M’membe should be the last person to point a finger at ZNBC, Daily Mail and Times of Zambia.

“The simplest instance you can point to about being genuine on media issues is the separate convection of the MMD and the PF,” he said.

The sources said while Post reporters freely covered the MMD convection regardless of their well-known stance against the government, the PF chose to bar journalists from the public media.

“Imagine if it were the Post who were barred from the MMD convention, President Banda would have been called all sorts of names. If the Post stands for Media freedom, what did they say about the behaviour of their new found friend Sata and his party?” the source wondered.

The source said it was such behaviour on the part of Namakando and The Post that they had distorted what should have been a vibrant media landscape in the country.