MISA Regional Annual Report 2023 Introduction The year 2023 was eventful, with both positive and negative developments recorded. Economically, the cost of living and doing business continued to rise during the year, which meant the media and MISA Zambia needed extra resources to conduct business. For instance, the cost of venue hire and fuel increased. The local currency, the kwacha, was on a sea-saw ride, gaining and losing value against major currencies. At the beginning of the year, the kwacha gained strength against the dollar. However, in the latter parts of the year, it plummeted. This volatility affected the organisation’s operations. During the year under review, a number of positive policy developments were recorded. A major development included the legislature passing the Access to Information Bill in December 2023 and the presidential assent in the same month. This follows 21 years of advocacy by MISA Zambia and its fellow non-state actors on the need for access to information legislation. Further, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act and Zambia National Broadcasting The Corporation (ZNBC) Act came under review. The government invited MISA Zambia to submit submissions on the 2023 draft bills of the two broadcast-related entities. Some of the progressive clauses include ZNBC being regulated by IBA. At the same time, the public broadcaster’s board members will be selected from a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including civil society organisations. This is another significant milestone for MISA Zambia, as the organisation had been advocating for Country Reports Snapshots broadcast media law reforms to empower IBA to regulate ZNBC and improve the autonomy of the two entities from executive control. Further, the State continued to allow the media to self-regulate, which was also a key milestone for media freedom in Zambia. To this end, MISA Zambia established the Media Self-Regulation Council of Zambia (MSCZ), which includes the Media Ethics Complaints Committee. However, despite these positive policy developments, 41 severe media freedom violations were recorded at the end of December 2023, impacting media freedom and freedom of expression. This prompted MISA Zambia to either issue statements condemning the violations or to engage the perpetrators. In other instances, the organisation deployed lawyers to support the affected journalists and media houses. Last year, attacks on the media doubled. In 2022, MISA Zambia recorded 22 violations, compared to 41 in 2023. One of the violations recorded in 2023 involved two journalists from the Zambia Daily Mail, a state-owned publication, who were dismissed for publishing pictures of people queuing for Zambia’s staple food, maize meal. In other cases, the ruling party’s supporters stormed radio stations, while some journalists were either summoned, arrested or detained by the police. Political context While 2023 saw very positive steps towards policy reforms, cases threatening media freedom and freedom of expression rose sharply. For instance, the number of severe cases that impacted media freedom and freedom of expression in 2022 stood at 22; 39