Top news items in major Zambian media outlets

LUSAKA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The following are news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Saturday.

-- Zambian President Edgar Lungu has urged the police and the public media to stop employing self-censorship tactics for them to objectively serve the public.

The Zambian leader said he had observed that police officers and the public media failed to objectively serve the public and the opposition political parties out of fear of offending the governing party or government and losing jobs. (Times of Zambia)

-- Zambian prisons are over 200 percent overcrowded with 21,000 inmates against an official holding capacity of 8,550, authorities have said.

Zambia Correctional Service commissioner-general Percy Chato said the institution was facing challenges of overcrowding, a situation that was fueling violation of human rights and the spread of communicable diseases. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- Zambia's former finance minister Alexander Chikwanda has questioned the decision by the Constitutional Court to uphold its earlier ruling on the need for ministers who continued in their offices after the dissolution of parliament ahead of last year's elections to repay the money earned during the period as they illegally occupied the offices.

Chikwanda, who is among the affected former ministers, said the Constitutional Court missed the point on the interpretation of the law. (Daily Nation)

-- A senior education official in eastern Zambia says reports of sexual abuse of the girl child by teachers and non-teachers are common in the province.

Eastern Province Education Officer Allan Lingambe said his office had numerous reports of girls' sexual abuse, adding that the setting up of a campaign against the vice has resulted in many people coming forward to report. (The Mast) Enditem