STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA said Government only wanted to utilize Prime Television because of its large audience and not that it wanted to support his station financially. Communique-27th February (Mast Newspaper) ZAMBIA Information and Communication Technology Authority says it pulled down 2,000 fake Facebook pages that were created in the name of prominent individuals across the country. And ZICTA says journalists should help counter fake news on social media. During a media interaction at Cross Roads Lodge on Tuesday night, ZICTA director general Patrick Mutimushi said the 2000 fake Facebook pages were removed in 2019 alone. “You must understand that a lot of people think even today that they can sit on Facebook and hide, but you can’t hide forever. If you have got a pseudonym, there are ways we use so that we get to the bottom of who this page belongs to and there is quite a lot of work that is happening today and will continue working with other security wings to ensure that some of these things are brought to a minimum,” Mutimushi said. Alert-27th March (News Diggers) TOPSTAR has removed Prime Television from all its platforms in accordance with Information Minister Dora Siliya’s directive that all government entities must cease any business with the station. In a letter addressed to the Prime TV CEO and dated March 27, acting Topstar chief executive officer Liu Yingnan said since government had some shares in Topstar, it could not continue to host Prime TV. “…In view of the above outlined statement and in compliance with the same, Topstar Communications Company Limited, a company in which government (through ZNBC) holds shares is hereby ceasing all forms of cooperation with yourselves by removing the station from our platform with immediate effect. We wish you well in your future endeavors,” stated Yingnan. Alert-30th March (News Diggers) NEWS Diggers Media Limited has argued before the Lusaka High Court that the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA), being a public body, is not entitled to sue for defamation or malicious falsehood on allegations of corruption. This is a matter in which NAPSA has sued ADD president Charles Milupi and News Diggers Media Limited in the Lusaka High Court, seeking damages for libel and malicious falsehood over a publication that allegedly accused it of corruption and mismanagement of members’ funds. The said publication was published on June 23, last year and was headlined ‘The NAPSA, AVIC deal stinks of corruption’. NAPSA is further seeking an injunction restraining Milupi and News Diggers, whether by themselves, their servants or agents or otherwise from further publishing or causing to be published, the said words or any similar words pg. 58