By BRIAN HATYOKA –
RADIO stations must be ethical and professional in their broadcasting so that listeners are correctly informed, Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) manager for standards and consumer affairs, Leah Kabamba has said.
Ms Kabamba said there was need for radio stations to be ethical in their reporting to avoid misleading the listeners.
She was speaking in Livingstone yesterday ahead of the World Radio Day commemoration, which falls today under the theme ‘radio is you’.
This year’s celebrations were being hosted in Livingstone by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, IBA, Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Media Action and Livingstone Press Club.
Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Kampamba Mulenga is expected to officiate at the event.
“Radio stations must at all times uphold professionalism in their broadcasting as radio information spreads quickly. We don’t want alarmists to be working in radio stations, because radio information spreads quickly, people on radio must be level headed, news must be accurate and we want music that is sane on radio, we listen to radio as a family,” she said.
Ms Kabamba said one measure to ensure that there was professionalism at radio stations was that the IBA only issued licenses to new radio stations on condition that a station manager had a journalism qualification.
She said various institutions had been conducting capacity building, but the challenge was once the people got trained and exposed, they left the stations and then other untrained people came in.
Ms Kabamba said another challenge had been the failure of certain broadcasters to give chance to others to also be trained.
She also said that radio remains by far the number one informer of the citizens, hence the need to celebrate it.