Introduction
The introduction of the Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF) on the Zambian media landscape is the latest introduction of a series of media activism that are aimed at improving the media pluralism and access to information by ordinary Zambians.
Zambian media sector is coming from a cyclical media environment history (1964-2002) of press freedom, authoritarian press stifling and then currently press freedom. Because of the lessons of the past media environments, efforts are being made to make sure that the Zambian constitution guarantees press freedom and removes any other law that abridges press freedom.
Consequently, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act of 2002, which establishes an independent body to look into licensing of TV and radio stations, was enacted in 2005. This new law abolished the old law called the ZNBC ACT which gave a monopoly to the State broadcaster ZNBC (Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation) to control the TV and radio airwaves. The IBA Act therefore set free the broadcast airwaves.
Currently, the government and various media organizations are locked up in the court proceedings over the enactment of the Freedom of information (FOI) Bill. This bill if enacted would allow access to most government documents, a thing the government is not happy about.
This papers, therefore attempts to give an overview of the community media in Zambia with a bias to the community radio. It will start by defining the term community media according to ZaCoMeF and proceed to identify the community media that are presently operating in Zambia. General factors affecting the community media in Zambia will be identified.
The conclusion will state opinions of ZaCoMeF as to the future of community media in Zambia.
The Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF) is an umbrella body representing the Zambian community media sector (newspaper/radio/TV etc). Membership of ZaCoMeF is drawn from all the nine provinces of Zambia.
ZaCoMeF was formed to address the specific problems that affect local community media. It also serves as a broker and clearing house for the community media initiatives. The forum caters for all community media initiatives in Zambia and will be all inclusive and open to all media actors in Zambia.
ZaCoMeF has four focus areas, namely research, networking, capacity building and lobbying & advocacy.
Under ZaCoMeF, Community Media are those interest or faith-based initiatives which serve a specific group or geographical area, are accessible to all and actively encourage and support community participation.
ZaCoMeF believes that community media provide a vital alternative to the profit-oriented agenda of corporate media. They are driven by social objectives rather than the private, profit motive. They empower people rather than treat them as passive consumers, and they nurture local knowledge rather than replace it with standard solutions. Ownership and control of community media is rooted in, and responsible to, the communities they serve. And they are committed to human rights, social justice, the environment and sustainable approaches to development.
Community media are integrated with practices of community life. They offer concrete means for public participation and for defending cultural diversity. Their content includes political and economic news that facilitates community dialogue and involvement, community and personal messages (marriages, union-meetings, lost donkeys), musical greetings, educational programs for development (health, environment, gender), information programs, and culturally relevant entertainment. Through access to the production and consumption of relevant communications, these media form a collective platform for community empowerment.
Community media offer their services and products in the local language of the areas they operate in. In other words, in all the nine provinces of Zambia, all community media use a common local language in their services.
In Zambia currently, there are 15 community media initiatives providing community media services. Most of these community media were started by the Roman Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church purchased the equipment and other things needed for the commencement of the broadcast and then handed over the project to the local parish to take charge. Local community committees were then set up to manage and run the affairs of the broadcast station. Examples of such media are Radio Icengelo (Copperbelt), Radio Yatsani (Lusaka) and Radio Maria (Eastern Province). The Catholic has facilitated the establishment of about 8 radio stations.
Radio Christian Voice (Lusaka) and Trinity Radio (Eastern) are both religious stations started by Pentecostal churches.
The Catholic Church supported radio stations are better equipped than the others. There are two radio stations that are owned by the academic institutions. These are UNZA Radio and Hone FM. These mainly broadcast to their students and the surrounding areas. Right now these two, who are both in Lusaka, are able to broadcast their services to the residents of the whole province of Lusaka.
The rest of the community media (see list of community media attached) are the real community media in that they have to fend for their money and equipment.
Community Radio stations need to get a license from both the Zambia Communications Authority and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services before they can start their broadcast. The first license is for allowing them to operate their equipment and the use of airwaves and the second is government approval. This double taxation might together cost about US$1000 (K5 million), an amount not easily affordable by community radio stations.
When fully operational, community radio stations face the twin problems of financing their programmes and staff. Most community radio stations are run by unqualified volunteers, most of whom love disc jockeying to running other programmes. When these community volunteers have been trained by the community media, they are easily poached by the main stream media. This has created a cycle of community media being trainers for the main stream media. ZaCoMeF members met recently to discuss ways of retaining their volunteer staff. It was said the reasons these volunteers left their stations was because the volunteers were not being paid. It was therefore suggested that community media should encourage volunteers to scout for sponsors for their programmes. When a programme was sponsored then the volunteered was then paid from the same sponsorship funds.
Another problem is the issue of equipment. Most community radio stations are using donated equipment, which in most cases is not suitable for radio stations servicing their areas. This has created several unique problems that are hard to sort out using known solutions. Every problem facing the station has to be looked at differently.
Legally, affairs of the community electronic media are represented by the IBA Act, which does not say much about community media, their role and how this sector is to operate. ZaCoMeF therefore intends to have community media recognized by this law and if possible have a law that talks about community media and its unique features and developmental role, especially among the rural areas and the marginalized poor.
ZaCoMeF is in the process of doing a needs-assessment research to determine the kind of problems bedeviling the community media. This needs assessment would be divided into two – one technical and another non technical. It is hoped that the problems identified would then be linked to donors and the corporate world interested in community media issues for solving.
In conclusion, ZaCoMeF believes that community media is and should be the centre stage of development. We feel that the involvement of the very people that are targets of development goals, is the first step towards achieving development. We think that the poor and the marginalized should be in the forefront of chatting out the new course of actions. Community media offers that. Community media offers the chance for these peoples to take part in the solving of their problems.
If the government should treat community media as tools of rural development, then the unfriendly environment community media are operating in might be changed.
Every year, new media initiatives are started in the community, and no sooner do they broadcast their first service than they shut down because of failing to sustain themselves.
There is need to help fund community media or to create an enabling environment for their sustainable existence. Companies and NGOs working in communities need to be encouraged to work with and sponsor community radio stations.
