THE Media Owners Association of Zambia (MOAZ) will on Thursday convene to chart the way forward on broadcasting stations which have been sanctioned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) for non-payment of yearly licence fees, as the association does not yet know the affected stations, Costa Mwansa, the MOAZ president, has said.
Mr Mwansa said he could not personally comment on IBA’s decisions before meeting with the MOAZ executive to agree on the best way of handling the private media in the country, which has received very little support from the Government in terms of advertisement.
In May 2022, President Hichilema, barely a year in office then, directed Government departments to advertise with the private media the same way they give contracts to private companies as one of the ways of strengthening democratic governance.
“We have tasked our secretary general Irvin Kafwan-ka to organise a meeting by Thursday, after which we should meet the IBA because we do not know who the affected stations are,” Mr Mwansa said. Broadcasting stations are required to pay K20,000 per year as a licence fee.