BLOGGERS of Zambia Chief Executive Officer Richard Mulonga has described the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s intention to regulate podcasts as malicious and unconstitutional.

Last Thursday, Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana said the IBA’s intention to regulate online media was meant to ease facilitation of the issuance of licences and conform them to nationally acceptable standards.

But speaking when he featured on Diamond TV’s Breakfast show, Friday, Mulonga said the revision of the IBA Act to provide regulation of podcasts was meant to limit freedom of expression, which he said was unconstitutional and should be challenged.

“The proposed amendment of the IBA Act particularly targeting podcasting is very malicious, it is illegal in our view, it is unconstitutional, it is illegitimate and it must be challenged. I know we collaborate a lot with the Independent Broadcasting Authority but if that is the spirit in which we see that the Act will be revised to target individuals, to target expression on the internet, it’s unconstitutional. If you remember when President HH was inaugurated and even now, he still promotes free expression. He is talking about freedom. He is talking about freedom of the media. This conversation that we are having is actually taking awareness of the vibe that the President is peddling. That the people will be free to express themselves on issues that affect them and the journalist will be free, without any intimidation they will have that press freedom. So we see this as a big takeaway from that policy pronouncement,” he said.

Mulonga said government should not forget that there were many other citizens that were using the internet to grow the economy.

“Now the internet has come open, it is inclusive and all you need is to just have access to it. And this is what is happening, the politicians have a voice, they have alternatives, they have options that they are offering the people of Zambia, and they are using the internet. So we must not come up with laws and strengthen them to target these people. There are many other citizens that are using the internet to achieve so many things for so many solutions. Students, there are other entrepreneurs that are innovators that are running similar podcasts covering various topics and generating income out of these podcasts and various internet platforms. Spotify and so on and so forth,” said Mulonga.

“So we find that when we want to make a law that is so broad and illegitimate to target people with oppositional voices, we are forgetting many other citizens that are using the internet to grow the economy and the people that want to participate in the democracy to deepen democracy. So you find that it just puts everybody and affects everybody. It is one person just wanting to have the voice so that the citizens can only listen to you then others should not talk. This is how we perceive this thing and I think it is very problematic especially in a democratic environment.”