Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda says in a bid to contain fake news, State House has resolved to be announcing, at 09:00 hours, if there will be a statement issued on a particular day.

At a media briefing Wednesday, Chanda said investigative wings had also been instructed to find the people who were generating fake news.

“If there is any statement from State House, we are going to tell you at 09:00 hours that today, there will be a statement from State House. We won’t tell you the time, but at least every morning at 09:00 hours, if there is a statement, we will announce that in due course there will be a statement. Then within 30 minutes of the statement, the state broadcaster will confirm that trough a bulletin or through an acclamation or public announcement to say the statement by State House has been issued. Further to that, the ZANIS director, PS information or my assistant, chief analyst Cecila [Mulenga] will be ably available to confirm if I am unreachable,” said Chanda.

“This is expressly a reaction to fake news and police are under instructions, because most of these are WhatsApp generated statements, police are under instructions to find out who these people are because this is forgery and uttery. Police and ZICTA have been strongly told to act decisively over this forgery.”

Chanda also said the State House website which was taken down due rampant hacking would soon be reestablished.