,QWURGXFWLRQ The year 2012 began on a high note with optimism for an improved media environment. This followed several promises by the newly elected Patriotic Front (PF) government of liberalising the Zambian media. The PF government came into power with a pledge to deliver change in various areas of concern, including the media sector. According to its manifesto, the PF says that it will implement the provisions of the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Amendment Act of 2002 that would allow ZNBC to operate as a public service broadcaster; review and implement the provisions of the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act of 2002; promote the autonomy of the government print media to enable them to compete with the private media; review and reconcile the provisions of the Official Secrets Act of 1969 and the Freedom of Information Bill of 2002 in order to enact the Freedom of Information Bill of 2002 into law; and, support self regulation of the media in Zambia and review operations of the public media. These remedies are based on the observation that the public media under the previous Movement for Multi-Party Democracy government was simply a mouthpiece of its master, the party in government. Following its election victory, the new PF government, through its Minister of Information, Honourable Given Lubinda, promised to enact the Access to Information (ATI) Bill by May 2012, while promises to operationalise the In- dependent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act were also high on the agenda. Subsequent Ministers of Information have made similar policy pronouncements regarding media freedom and access to information. For instance, on 25th January 2012, newly appointed Minister of Information, Fackson Shamenda, urged the media to desist from praising government all the times, especially when it was wrong. Similar words were echoed during the World Press Freedom Day Commemorations on 3rd May 2012. “Press Freedom is non-negotiable as far as the PF government is concerned, as is public access to information in order to have a well informed society. Before 20th September 2011 [the day PF came into power], heads of public media used to queue up every day before the Information Permanent Secretary to have their news items approved for publication, as the permanent secretary was the de facto editor-in-chief for the Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail and ZNBC,” Shamenda said. With these assurances, state-owned media such as ZNBC and Zambia Daily Mail have since improved news coverage to include ‘dissenting, views from opposition political parties on various national issues. The front pages of state-owned dailies were no longer a preserve of the ruling party. Furthermore, the government allowed the media to launch a non-statutory media regulation body, which had stalled following calls by the previous government for a statutory media regulation framework as opposed to non-statutory regulation. 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\"