GOVERNMENT will this year conduct training programmes for community and commercial radio station staff across the country.
Information and Broadcasting Services Deputy Minister, Poniso Njeulu said the training programme was designed to build capacity among journalists in community and commercial radio stations.
Mr Njeulu said this in Petauke yesterday in reaction to acting Explorer Radio Station manager, Patrick Daka during the Deputy Minister’s visit to the community radio station.
Mr Daka had appealed to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services to help his radio station with training as most of the staff in private radio stations lacked the necessary skills to effectively perform their work.
He said apart from challenges of limited resources, radio stations in rural areas  lacked properly trained staff.
And Mr Njeulu has called on community radio stations in the country to be professional when discharging their duties of informing the communities about programmes that Government was implementing in their areas.
He said Government expected media houses to write objective and factual stories as unprofessional reporting had the potential to  bread anarchy in the country.
The deputy minister also disclosed that Government planned to start a programme of giving grants to community radio stations as a way of helping them sustain their operations.
He said the programme was only intended to assist community radio stations and not commercial radio stations that were expected to generate their own finances.
Mr Njeulu was in Eastern Province to tour Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) offices as well as radio stations in the area. -ZANIS