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Action Aid Zambia says investigative journalism in Zambia and the Southern African region is facing immense challenges due to various reasons such as the decline in media freedom and punitive legislation meant to silence people.
Officially opening a five days media training workshop on Investigative Journalism in Chilanga on Wednesday, Action Aid Zambia Programmes Coordinator, Geoffrey Sizala, noted that there had been instances of harassment and physical attacks against Journalists in Zambia.
Sizala said many Journalists had been detained by Police for no reason only to be released later without any apology or remorse by authorities.
He said Journalists had been brutalized, seared and intimidated on mere suspicions that they would expose the ill dealings of some criminal elements in society.
“Limited financial and material resources have also been a blockage in the effective operation of the media in Zambia and some parts of the Southern African Region,” Sizala said.
He said Action Aid has therefore thought it prudent that its partnership in fostering development and offering checks and balances in communities as a way of promoting justice and ending poverty can be best achieved by empowering Journalists with more skills to execute the work diligently.
Sizala said this was not the first time Action Aid was offering training to Journalists through its partnership with HIGHWAY AFRICA of Rhodes University in South Africa but that it was a continuous programme of empowering the scribes.
“This meeting today forms part of the year four activities for our public social accountability (PSA) Alliance Project’s strengthening Social accountability and oversight in health and agriculture in Southern Africa which seeks to improve public service delivery in agriculture (food security), health, HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights) and the public,” he said.
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