THE Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) has objected to the removal of the appointments committee from the amended Independent Broadcasting Authority Act on grounds that it allows excessive powers to the minister of Information and Broadcasting Services.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Information and Broadcasting Services at Parliament on Monday, PAZA president Andrew Sakala submitted that the deleted part would have provided impartiality in the selection of the IBA board.

He said the interpretation of the new law meant that the appointment of the board members would be the sole responsibility of the minister of Information and Broadcasting Services and would not guarantee the independence that stakeholders sought.

"As PAZA, we feel that this is retrogressive as it goes against the original intention of the media law reforms.

"Although the Supreme Court ruled that the minister has the right to reject names provided by the appointments committee, it did not rule that the appointments committee should completely be removed and our view is that the committee should be retained," Mr Sakala said.

He told the committee chaired by Mpika Central Member of Parliament Mwansa Kapeya that PAZA had raised fears when it appeared before the committee to discuss the ZNBC Act when similar provisions were removed.

"We also note that the Act has been brought for amendment even before it has been implemented and that the functions which are supposed to be carried out by the IBA are still being discharged by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting," Mr Sakala, who was flanked by PAZA vice-president Amos Chanda, said.

He said the IBA Act was yet to be tested as to how it would operate and the hitches that it may face when it is finally allowed to operate had not been tried.

Mr Sakala said there were many conditions given to licensees which if not obeyed could result in a licence being cancelled and that some of them were unclear and difficult to implement.

The IBA Act of 2002 was enacted to regulate the broadcasting industry through the creation of IBA in line with the recommendations made by the media law reform committee and was part of the efforts to democratise the media industry.

Mr Chanda submitted that the IBA had been under discussion for a long time and should be implemented so that the functions being discharged by the minister were discharged by a legally assigned body.