STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA print and online) as well as media violation alerts to establish the common themes with regard to the objectives of the study. The report also employed the use of in-depth interviews with key informants who were purposively selected on the basis of their known or presumed knowledge about issues related to or affecting the state of the media. The key informants comprised media experts, scholars, civil society organisations and the Independent Broadcasting Authority, a broadcast regulator. Interviews were also conducted with practising journalists to gain a deeper understanding and validation of some of the phenomena observed in the two quarters. The study was affected by the limited resources available to ably cover the country as well as limited time allocated towards the compilation of the report. 2.0. Executive Summary The State of the Media Report is a quarterly assessment of the media environment in Zambia. This edition covers both the first and second quarters of 2020; January-March and April-June. This assessment and record describes the media situation in Zambia during this period and was prepared under the auspices of MISA Zambia Chapter. This report includes a number of interesting occurrences that added new developments, twists and opportunities alike for the overall media environment in Zambia. The socio-political and legal environment was found to be relatively unfree in both quarters in view of the many violations and negative developments witnessed in the media sector. Some of these developments included the effect of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, suspected ritual killings and gassing incidents as well as numerous political attacks on media outlets and cases of harassment of media practitioners. These events, among others, continued to inhibit the work of the media and undermined the very fabric of press freedom which is expected to flourish in an environment where editorial independence as well as freedom from undue influence are guaranteed. pg. 7