and often “doctor” or seek to suppress stories likely to embarrass their superiors. More junior journalists, on the other hand, have a genuine desire to work professionally. The fact that the country’s two major dailies and the largest broadcaster are state-owned tends to reduce significantly the overall channels available for free expression. The increasing diversity of the media in Zambia, however, makes it ever harder for authorities to keep control as they might wish. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 1.3 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4 2.9 (2005 = 2.3) There are no laws restricting freedom of expression such as excessive official secret or libel acts, or laws that unreasonably interfere with the responsibilities of the media. ANALYSIS: In early 2002, a Task Force on Media Law Reform, comprising all media stakeholders including the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, found – amongst others – “that there are a number of statutes on the statute books, which directly and indirectly hinder the press freedom and ultimately the very survival of media institutions”. Ever since, though, not one of these laws has been changed or repealed. Laws restricting freedom of expression and those that unreasonably interfere with the operations of the media exist and remain in force, some of them going back as far as 1911. Some examples: The Penal Code, in force since 1930, empowers the President to ban publications deemed to be against the public interest (Section 53) and criminalizes publication of “false news with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public” (Section 67). Sections on sedition and related practices proscribe public debate on issues and publication of information deemed likely to arouse popular disaffection against the state. Section 177 (1) criminalizes publication of obscenity (imprisonment of up to five years) without defining what is deemed to constitute obscene matter. Sections 57 (1) and 60 (1) prohibit sedition (jail term of seven years) and defines “seditious intention” among others as the “intention … to excite disaffection against the government” or “to raise discontent or disaffection among the people of Zambia”. Section 69 deals with defamation of the president and provides that “any person who, with intent to bring the President into hatred, ridicule or contempt, publishes any defamatory or insulting matter … is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for up to three years”, without the option of a fine. Section 4 of the State Security Act makes it an offence (punishable by up to 25 years imprisonment) to retain or communicate to other persons any information obtained as a result of one’s present or former employment with government. Parliament enjoys special ‘protection’ under Section 19 of the National Assembly Act. To “show disrespect in speech or manner towards the Speaker” or to “commit any other act of intentional disrespect with reference to the proceedings of the Assembly” is an offence liable to a fine or imprisonment with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding three months. So This Is Democracy? 2007 -253- Media Institute of Southern Africa