‘Ignore opposition,’ Perm Sec, Kawana, claims UPND govt has delivered 80% of promises

Information and Media Permanent Secretary, Thabo Kawana, claims that government has delivered 80 percent of its campaign promises.

Kawana said it was unfortunate that the opposition were arguing otherwise, saying that President Hakainde Hichilema had failed to deliver on promises despite seeing a number of developments.

Kawana said this in Lusaka on Thursday during the launch of the State of the Freedom of Expression (FOX) report for the period July to December, 2023 by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Zambia.

“Meeting campaign promises is not an event. As we speak the New Dawn Government has delivered at least 80 percent of its promises but the opposition has chosen to generate falsehood about the state of the economy,” he stated.

Kawana said government had noted a growing trend of falsehood generation amongst the opposition and some ordinary Zambians who frequent media houses to peddle their lies.

“Government will always prioritize freedom of expression but this should not be abused and I want to urge you, the media, to adopt a debate format presentation on your various platforms to curtail liers,” he advised.

On the launched FOX report, Kawana stated that citizens were enjoying fundamental freedoms because of goverment’s good policies.

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“It is gratifying to note that no media institution has been closed or interfered with as was the case in the previous administration,” the Permanent Secretary stated.

The report 2023 FOX was conducted in all the 10 provinces of the country targeting journalists, media trainers, bloggers, political parties, human rights defenders as well as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

It indicated some improvements in the first half of 2023 in the enjoyment of media freedom, freedom of expression and digital rights.

The report’s general overview, however, was that the environment for Journalists in the country was quite healthy.

According to the findings in the period under review, about 73 percent of journalists felt that the media in Zambia operates freely while on the other hand, 26.3 percent felt the opposite.

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