OPPOSITION Members of Parliament (MPs) have praised public media institutions for fair and wider coverage of political parties since the Patriotic Front (PF) Government assumed power.

United Party for National Development (UPND) Choma MP Cornelius Mweetwa told Parliament yesterday that he was impressed with the enhanced and fair coverage by the public media on political parties.

Mr Mweetwa was debating the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services 2013 Budget allocation of K91.1 billion, which was approved in the House yesterday.

He was happy that the Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) were able to provide wider and objective coverage unlike the case was during the run up to the September 2011 tripartite elections under the MMD.

"Mr Chairman, the public media is performing well when it comes to covering various stakeholders like political parties. At least, we have seen some relative improvements which is good," Mr Mweetwa said.

He commended the PF Government for ensuring that there was no political interference in operations of the public media institutions such as ZNBC when broadcasting news.

UPND Kalabo Central MP Chinga Miyutu was impressed with the operations of the public media institutions but called on Government to ensure ZNBC improved its reception in Western Province.

MMD Keembe MP Ronnie Shikapwasha, who is former Information and Broadcasting Services minister, said the budget allocation to the ministry was not sufficient.