A New Dawn for Zambian Media

Dancing, chanting, and firework popping was the immediate reaction of majority youth on the streets of Zambia after Hakainde Hichilema (HH) was declared the winner of the 2021 Presidential elections. I was no exception; however, in no time I began to think about how the media would be influenced by this change in government.

Historically, government owned media companies in Zambia have been highly controlled; as a result, their reporting has been biased and predictable. Journalistically, news is “newly received information”. If recipients of news can predict what will be reported, it is a clear indication that journalism has been dumbed down.

Over the last year, multiple people have talked about how Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) repeatedly headlines stories about the President and very little (to no) reporting covers the opposition leaders – and in the rare cases that opposition political parties are featured, the reports are not positive. However, immediately after the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) announced that Hichilema is the President Elect, ZNBC published their first positive display of him. I should highlight that Hichilema has been a political leader since 2006; so, 15 years is a long time to wait to be positively portrayed by the media. The good news is, a wind of change has risen!

In Zambia, we use the word ‘Kwacha’ to refer to a new dawn and that is exactly what we have seen since Hichilema was declared as President Elect. It all started with ZNBC’s congratulatory slideshow, which drove me to highly anticipate what the government-owned print media companies would publish; especially Daily Nation, which is not government owned, but has been highly influenced by the previous government.

I cannot adequately express how emotional I was when I saw the headline ‘HH wins’ on Daily Nation’s front page! Quite frankly, I anticipated a headline that would condemn the elections by saying they were not free or fair. So, to see my fellow media practitioners reporting news that I could not predict was an indication to me that the field of journalism would be more professional. I am yet to frame that copy of the paper; it will go down in the history of Zambian media if I ever become a Media Studies Lecturer.

What’s more? Hichilema declared in his first speech as President Elect that the media will not be controlled. The benefits of this are twofold. Firstly, this allows press freedom to prevail; secondly, it means that we will have real news and not the tailored propaganda that we have seen in previous years. This is huge for the mainstream media industry! As a result, we witnessed Prime TV being reopened on the day that Hichilema was declared President; it should be noted that Prime TV was shut down because of their unbiased reporting. As a journalist, I couldn’t be more proud.

?Not a week has passed since Hichilema was pronounced President Elect, but a lot has changed about the media. ZNBC’s reporting has been remarkable, Daily Nation’s stories have been unpredictable, and even freedom of speech on Social Media has been sweeter – especially following the President Elect’s declaration that we are free to speak to him and that he will be a servant leader, not a master.

It’s such a great time to be alive, to be Zambian, and to witness this new dawn in the media. Indeed, KWACHA!

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