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—Acting Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, Inonge Wina, says piracy is the one of the biggest threats to the economic development of the country as the scourge deprives government of the much-needed revenue for development.
Ms Wina said piracy not only kills innovation but also robs artists and inventors of their hard earned income which leads to unemployment and poverty.
Ms Wina was speaking today when she officially launched a sensitisation campaign on the hologram, a security feature to be affixed on all genuine CDs, DVDs and other such media to distinguish original audio and visual products from pirated ones.
The hologram will be officially launched on 16th September this year by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and Arts.
Ms Wina, who is also Gender and Child Development Minister, said government will not allow piracy to continue but instead wants to safeguard the interests of artists in order to empower them.
She said the ministry has since constituted a taskforce under the chairmanship of the Permanent Secretary to expedite the implementation process ahead of the hologram launch.
The minister revealed that arrangements are being made to ensure that provincial ministers launch the holograms simultaneously at provincial level.
She further disclosed that a sensitisation programme has since been arranged tonight on ZNBC television to be led by the Permanent Secretary, Amos Malupenga.
Meanwhile, Ms Wina has called on the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to provide a progress report on their investigations with regard to the disappearance of the pirated DVDs at Mwami Border in Chipata.
Ms Wina said the report should be provided as soon as possible because it was now almost a year since the incident happened.
Last year in August, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Amos Malupenga, disclosed that a DVD consignment weighing 1,519.5 kg and valued at KR82.6 million that was illegally imported into the country had gone missing at Mwami border post.
Mr Mwalupenga then engaged the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Zambia Police Service and ZRA Commissioner-General to probe the matter.
