By ALICE NACHILEMBE
The Media Liaison Committee (MLC) has opposed the resolution by Times of Zambia management to retrench and terminate contracts for some employees.
Media Liaison Chairperson Enock Ngoma said that they are aware that management at Times of Zambia newspaper and the Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) held a meeting where they resolved to retrench some workers for young journalists, some of whom have been on part-time contracts for over five years.
Mr Ngoma said reports reaching us indicate that most of the affected journalists are young ones with a lot of potential who are currently on contracts that expire on March 31, 2020.
He said getting rid of such promising journalists after ‘using’ them for so many years is inhuman and unfair.
“We wish to strongly oppose this inhuman decision from the two key stakeholders, management and the union. It is unthinkable that young blood should be sacrificed in an industry that desires to grow. We are equally disappointed with ZUJ who supported such a retrogressive proposal which culminated into a devilish decision,” he said.
Mr Ngoma said from the time the Times of Zambia was conjoined to the Zambia Daily Mail that was the beginning of the newspaper’s demise.
He said that government wants to destroy Times of Zambia assets which surpass those of the Zambia Daily Mail by far.
Mr Ngoma said MLC demands that they rescind the decision on taking the media backward.
The Media Liaison Committee is a consortium of media bodies and trade union movements. Member organisations include the Zambia Union of Journalists, Zambia Media Women Association, Media Institute of Southern Africa, Suma Systems Limited, Mthoniswa Banda Limited, Editors’ Forum and the Media Network on Child Rights and Development. Others are the Zambia Institute for Independent Media Alliance, Bloggers Network of Zambia, Bloggers of Zambia, Free Press Initiative, and the Press Freedom Committee of The Mast.
