Government says the delay to table the Access to Information (ATI) Bill in Parliament was not deliberate as it will be tabled during the next sitting in September this year after going through all necessary phases.
Chief Government Spokesperson Kennedy Sakeni, who is Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, said yesterday that the Bill was currently going through the legislative Parliamentary Committee before it could be tabled before Cabinet for approval.
Sakeni told journalists in Lusaka that Government was committed to seeing an independent and objective media and as such it was working round the clock to finalise the stages of the Bill so that it could be tabled in the next sitting of Parliament.
He described as mere politicking assertions by Alliance for Better Zambia President Frank Bwalya on one of the local radio stations yesterday that Government was ‘scared’ to table the Bill.
But Sakeni said Government was working to ensure that the Bill passed through all the necessary stages.
“Father Bwalya is merely politicking because the Bill has stages which it must go through before it is tabled before Parliament. Cabinet has already said that it goes to the legislative committee which needs to scrutinise because we cannot jump the gun but follow the right procedure,” Sakeni said.
He explained that the Bill could only be tabled in the next sitting in September because there were four days remaining before the current Parliamentary session could adjourn sine die.
“We must make sure that when we take it to Parliament, it has all the required ingredients. We are committed to tabling it before Parliament but we can’t manage to do so now because we are only remaining with four days before the House adjourns,” he said.
Sakeni was positive that by the time Parliament resumes in September, the legislative committee would have completed its work and Cabinet would have approved the document.
Source: Times of Zambia
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