In a bid to prevent the fourth wave of the pandemic, government during the quarter introduced measures which included the mandatory wearing of face masks, requirement of a vaccination certificate for one to access government buildings as well as nationwide roll-out of vaccination efforts 14. Minister of Information and Media, Chushi Kasanda announced that the vaccination points would be made easily accessible for journalists. This was indeed a positive move as journalists are among the high-risk groups in view of the nature of their work which requires interaction with various individuals on a daily basis. Further, due to their deadlines and daily assignments, it would be difficult for many journalists to access the vaccines given the long queues that characterised the vaccination points, hence the need for privileged access. Overall, the socio-political environment in the quarter posted similar trends as those observed in the third quarter, while certain aspects noted in the preceding quarters indicate a continuation in social-political activities with the potential to affect the media landscape. The incidents of violence noted in the quarter, for example, are reminiscent of incidents recorded in all the quarters of the year, with similar modus operandi. The COVID-19 pandemic equally continued in the quarter under review and, as such, its effects continued to threaten the operations of the media, though less severe. This was announced during an inter-ministerial COVID situational update. See https://www.lusakatimes.com/2021/11/29/zambia-introduces-touch-covid-19-measures-vacination-for-civilservants-to-be-mandatory/ 14 18