PAZA bemoans low salaries for journalists

By Ann Zulu
THE Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) has appealed to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to seriously consider the issue of improving poor salaries for journalists.

PAZA president Andrew Sakala said there was urgent need for responsible authorities to review the salaries of journalists, saying most of them were earning very low salaries.

Mr. Sakala observed that most journalists were still struggling to make ends meet.

He told this reporter in an interview that journalists deserved proper pay and better conditions of service because they greatly contributed to the development of the country and welfare of the State.

Mr. Sakala added that apart from the three arms of Government - Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive - the media was the fourth estate of governance that represented the voice of the people.

“It is very sad that despite all the work that journalists do, their conditions of service are very poor. They even risk their lives to carry out serious investigations and research without appropriate security, to the extent that some of them lose their lives during reporting. There is serious need to look into this issue,” Mr Sakala said.

He noted that poor conditions of service by employers was tempting media practitioners to engage in corrupt and unethical activities.

“We are exposing journalists to corruption and unethical reporting if you don’t pay them proper salaries. Let’s attempt to make our journalists better people by giving them what they deserve,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Sakala has called on the general public and organizations to respect the rights of the media.

He urged them to stop attacking media personnel in the course of their duties.

“The fact that a journalist wrote some unpalatable stories about you or your organization does not make him or her criminal; if anyone feels aggrieved by any piece of journalistic work or any attitude of any media let that person resort to the law to seek redress,” he said.