because of the mediocrity I see. Therefore, we need regulation in order to sanitize our profession. It is worth noting that journalists in Zambia do not have any formal recognition, save the implicit provision in Article 20 (2) of the Zambian Constitution which states that “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution no law shall make any provision that derogates from freedom of the press”. This, however, does not define the press (and journalists), the privileges and protection they enjoy as well as their corresponding responsibilities, thereby leaving them at the mercy of the many derogations promulgated by the same Article and made more explicit by various provisions in subsidiary laws such as the Penal Code, among others. It has been noted severally that the proposed “statutory self-regulation of the media” as encapsulated in the current Zambia Media Ethics Council Bill is a misnomer. This is because there exist three broad categories of regulation i.e. Self-regulation, statutory regulation and co-regulation. Self-regulation, by its very nomenclature, is a voluntary process without any coercion or involvement of statutory authorities. Media houses voluntarily come together to agree on standards as well as corrective action to be taken when such standards are breached by those who choose to ascribe. This form of regulation has been pursued in Zambia through the initial Media Ethics Council of Zambia (MECOZ), later succeeded by the Zambia Media Ethics Council (ZAMEC) which remained defunct mainly due to funding challenges. Statutory regulation on the other hand, is mandatory regulation which is passed by a government and is enforceable by law. It is coercive, includes licensing and may carry punitive sanctions, including imprisonment. It is usually seen to be suppressive to media freedom and the freedom of expression, taking away the independence of media practitioners especially in a country with authoritarian tendencies. This was once mooted by President Kenneth Kaunda in the early 1980s in what is now the infamous 1980 Press Council Bill9 and later intimated in the mid-years of the Chiluba regime10. 9 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229108535124 http://dspace.unza.zm/bitstream/handle/123456789/1004/main%20doc.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y 10 16