I WISH to congratulate our women for the colourful International Women’s Day celebrations that were broadcast live on ZNBC television.
The live coverage by ZNBC enabled viewers to aptly follow proceedings notably when Presidend Edgar Lungu toured various stands.
President Lungu had an interesting mission during his tour of stands as he asked representatives from each organisation how many women were in management positions compared to men.
In line with this year’s theme which is: “50-50 representation by 2030”, the President was on point to take to task some organisations that had not done well in that area.
The decision by the national broadcaster to beam the Lusaka event live and the compilation of snippets from other districts was commendable though at some point, there was some sound failure.
Anyway, that has always been the problem when our national broadcaster is showing live programmes.
The edited version of the programme was better.
When the President began touring the stands, I could at some point see Chisenga Mumba doing the live commentary and was expecting to at least hear what the President was saying.
Unfortunately, I could neither get the President nor Chisenga’s voice but all I could hear was irritating background music.
Anyway, away from the national broadcaster now to the privately owned Muvi where a bizarre occurrence was captured on camera during the Women’s Day celebrations in Livingstone.
The magnitude of the weird occurrence under review overshadowed all other news items including the main reason for the day.
That particular day, my area had no power and I only heard from colleagues about the news item of a man who ejaculated on a young woman as they marched.
This story went round like bushfire and I was able to get it via WhatsApp from one viewer who recorded the news item and sent it to me.
The picture had a question from the viewer who sent it to this platform which read:
“Hi Sam I was watching Muvi TV and in case you did not get what caught my attention, I have sent you a video clip of the news item. Now after seeing what Muvi TV captured on camera  put as a news item, do you thing it is right more especially that the news was being watched by even kids?”
Thank you for the question and the simple answer is YES , that was a very good news item which caught even your attention.
In news gathering, it is very difficult to get such an exclusive item, the only items that require privacy are those that involve a defenceless dead person.
In fact this news item has brought about a good debate especially after the Police arrested the culprit and charged him with “attempted rape”.
The question that has been going round ever since the Police read out the charge is; was the charge correct or not.
At this point what crept to mind was the pros and cons of the ejaculation issue and its definition as an offence.
Since there was no physical contact between the accused and the victim, it would be not correct to assume that the man ‘committed rape’. A charge of ‘indecent assault’ would have been more appropriate.
One would be inclined to view this act as a ‘misdemeanor’ which does not warrant the charge which has been atttached attached to it.
Even the manhandling of the offender could have been avoided because there was no contact between him and the woman but only her outer garments were somewhat stained.
Again, one would also be tempted to think about the judgement of news editors and their privileges.
Many times viewers may have watched how media houses abroad have camouflaged faces of interviewees whose lives were deemed to be at risk if they are fully identified. This mainly depends on the extent of professionalism that the broadcasters exhibit.
Lets leave it here for today but once again we say congratulations to our women.
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