By Kamuti Muyambela
Faustina Sinyangwe says there are more better things ZNBC can do with their resources than doing a live-coverage of the President getting on a plane.
Calling in to Daily Revelation, Sinyangwe, the former Matero lawmaker, wondered why everything about President Hichilema was being carried live on ZNBC.
“Why should there be a live coverage just to see a President going to Congo? There is no need, now we are just going down the drain. Now they are playing with Zambians, in one breath they say the people who were there were very extravagant. Do they know how much live coverage costs?” Sinyangwe asked. “What are we gaining in seeing the President getting on a plane going to Congo? That is just a news item where just one cameraman can go and film and he reports that the President left. If we look at the many vehicles, all the press men are there, all the work that is supposed to be done is not done, it is at stand still because they want to see one person get on a plane.”
Sinyangwe said she expected the UPND administration of President Hichilema to operate more differently than the other administrations, especially that they were proclaiming themselves of being a new dawn government.
“And how much fuel does it cost to have all those people go there and come back? I have seen it is a trend, wherever HH steps it must be a live coverage. It has never been like that. If we are going to say one thing that it is bad they are using money, we don’t care about other things, then where are we going? Are we improving?” Sinyangwe asked.
She said this could not be allowed to go on, and the President himself should speak out against this.
“And what they do they cross over so quickly, the reporter doesn’t even know what he is saying. They are just playing around and we can’t have a situation like that,” Sinyangwe said. “There are other issues that could be covered in the compounds that we need to know about than seeing the President getting on a plane. They can just report he went to Congo, he goes with a reporter he comes and tells us what they did where they went.”
Sinyangwe further said she had not seen any improvement in the coverage by the public media, saying they simply channeled their same energy from covering the former ruling PF to the new ruling UPND.
“It’s worse because wherever they are there is coverage. Everybody stops what they are doing … Now news is just them them them. Nothing is changing. We expect things to get better. We see all the Kapokolas (policemen), we see the mayors just to see one person go to Congo. No, no, no I think we should change,” said Sinyangwe.
