Secondly, media houses encounter a high cost of doing business based on poor performance of economic variables indicated above. For example, the high rate of inflation in the quarter as well as currency depreciation increased the cost of running a media outlet as most of the inputs (such as newsprint, television programmes and rights, international hosting and so on) are procured in foreign currency and poor performance of the local currency entails higher costs. Locally, the high inflation rate meant media houses had to spend more money to procure certain goods and services, while still having to meet statutory obligations and salaries of their staff. Thirdly, a combination of the economic variables presented above also limited the capacity of media houses to make capital investments as well as purchase new equipment, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to an introduction of a virtual society underpinned by advanced technology (e.g. virtual interviews and mobile broadcasting). One of the respondents noted that: As a media house, we lost out on business as a result of the pandemic because most of our clients were still struggling to get back on their feet after the first, second and now third wave, therefore they could not give us business like before. This made our operations very difficult, hence we had to come up with innovative ways of raising money so as to meet salaries for journalists and other members of staff Overall, financial independence is a cardinal element of press freedom. In fact, some studies have found a converse relation between a country’s economic freedom and the level of press freedom33. As such, the factors discussed above tend to generally compromise the media’s ability to enjoy press freedom as they become over-dependent on advertising, which exposes them to commercial influence. During the quarter under review, there was no load shedding observed, different from the case in the previous quarter and seriously affected the operations of media houses. In the quarter under review, there was no load management implemented, save maintenance operations with minimal periods of power outage. This contrasts with the past two quarters in which most media houses had to rely on alternative sources of electricity to keep their equipment running, often at high cost. Overall, the economic environment in the quarter under review posted a slightly more positive outlook as compared to the first quarter. The quarter witnessed a marginal improvement in economic activity, whose benefits trickled down to the media sector while the absence of such exacerbating factors as load shedding helped to cushion the impact on media enterprises which were reeling from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed in the first quarter. The general upward trend in most economic variables, particularly inflation among others, continued to affect media outlets negatively by increasing the cost of doing business and reducing the capacity of media houses to make capital investments, especially in the wake of the virtual society under the COVID-19 pandemic which required improved technology. 33 See a 2018 economic note titled “Economic freedom promotes freedom of the press” by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI). Available at https://www.iedm.org/sites/default/files/web/pub_files/note0118_en.pdf State of the Media in Zambia 15