Workshop
Details
In Zambia the constitution making process has been centre stage in many debates and in no other country the discussion of introducing a new constitution or amending the current one has been under such spotlight. The reason being is not a very satisfying one: Since independency in 1964, the government of the Republic of Zambia has promised to deliver a new, revised constitution – after four decades of rule under three different presidents who tried to temper with it for their own good the only outcome is a delay up to now with the government deliberately prolonging the process.
How to make sure - under such political climate - that peoples’ rights and needs are anchored into the constitution of their land? Is Zambias civil society able to make an impact to intervene demanding their rights and what are the challenges on the way forward? These and other questions with regards to this ground laying document have been asked by print and radio journalists during a KAS media workshop on “Advanced Political Reporting” in October in the capital Lusaka, Zambia.
Their impressions are layed out in “Indaba Zambia”, an online-magazine which was produced as practical exercise by the group of print journalists during the seminar. It offers valuable insight and stories from the stone crusher Moses Banda in Libala South who feels left out of the on-going constitution review process to an exploration of the question around the dealth penalty contradicting the principle of separation of power as well as womens’ pleas for gender equality.
The group of radio journalists tackled the same topic and put together a radio magazine titled: “Zambia, The Quest for a New Constitution”. After that one week course the participants felt, they improved their knowledge on how to look at a newsworthy story from different angles to avoid biased reporting and how to focus on more acurate structures in their articles in order to inform the reader/listener about interesting themes and creates debates among them.
