THE privilege Zambia has to co-host the Democracy Summit is a sign of the confidence that the international community has in the country’s democratic credentials, Minister of Information and Media Chushi Kasanda has said.
Ms. Kasanda said Zambia would co-host the summit on democracy against a backdrop of significant democratic achievements in deepening the country’s egalitarianism.
She said the democratic achievements included the ongoing legal and constitutional reforms, among them review of the Public Order Act, abolishment of the death penalty, removal of the defamation of the president clause from the country’s statutes, as well as the ongoing process to enact the access to information bill.
“One of the key pillars of democracy, premised on the fact that as a servant of the people, government is a mere custodian of information. Its true owner are the people,” Ms Kasanda said.
Ms. Kasanda said this when she officially opened the media orientation workshop for the Democracy Summit Zambia is slated to co-host later this month.
She said government had also restored the editorial independence of the media to see their own agenda without instruction or interference from anyone.
Ms. Kasanda said since the UPND came into office over a year ago, no media house has been closed, as was common during the previous administration, claiming the media was now free as were the citizens.
