Sources at the newspaper note with great concern that since the offices and printing press of The Post were closed by the government, it has been difficult to operate efficiently; which has resulted in many challenges. Compounding the situation has been cases where cadres from the ruling party, the PF have on several occasions grabbed copies of the newspaper from the vendors as they were spotted selling on the streets. These are the realities that the media in Zambia are have to put up with. Steps need to be taken to ensure that the rule of law is maintained and the state must be the guarantor of it. The state cannot be seen to be abrogating this status quo no matter the apprehensions or fears it is confronted with. There is simply no excuse for trampling on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Like Father Kennedy Chola observed, “the harassment of independent media is bad for democracy.”11 The media needs its free space to offer the information to the public unfettered as this is the oxygen of any functioning democracy. He rightly observed that the country was in need of a free and independent media. In his statement, the priest stated that the continued closure of The Post was not about taxes but politics and President Edgar Lungu’s government was not happy with the many corruption revelations or the extent to which the newspaper was providing checks and balances. It is indeed necessary to have an independent media that will cover the voiceless as it is obvious that those with divergent views will never be heard in public media. Therefore, the only avenue they have to have their voice heard is a free and independent media. Fr. Chola further urged the politicians to allow ZRA to engage with The Post over the disputed tax claims and bring the saga to a conclusive and productive end than let it drag on as it was an unnecessary blight on Zambia’s democratic credentials. Due to the high frequency of state interference in the working of the media during the quarter, especially around the election period, some election observers also expressed concern on the deterioration of the press freedom levels and the frequent violation of freedoms of expression of the opposition political parties. This was especially of great concern as the government, using the police kept frustrating opposition political parties by cancelling planned rallies across the breadth and length of the country, much to the chagrin of the observers. One such grouping was the European Union Observer Mission which grilled President Lungu over the cancellation of political rallies for the opposition UPND. Further, the election observer team expressed concern as to why the opposition did not have equal access to the public media. The team observed that instead of playing a fair game by offering equal access to all political parties the public media were going 11 The Post newspaper, 20th September 2016 16