We are inviting the media personnel, cooperating partners, and Government to support the new path which we wish to take in coming up with a truly independent Self- Regulation mechanism. To this effect, a position paper is being prepared to be submitted to the relevant bodies13. Similarly, one of the FGD discussants noted that: The type of regulation we need is co-regulation; where there is the government, general public and media. We cannot only have dualregulation because our client’s voices are also important; therefore we need the general public because they also tell us our behaviors, attitudes and issues. Self-regulation is not entirely possible, because already as the media we have failed to manage ourselves; so we need the general public to manage us but not in an authoritative way. With regard to the current withdrawal from the process by some stakeholders and the prospects of the Bill succeeding, one FGD discussant observed that: The enactment of the Bill may succeed, except the stage that it is at where some bodies are pulling out is a source of concern. It may be passed but it might not have the support of the owners-us the media practitioners Another notable issue with the proposed “statutory-self regulation” of the media is the current harsh legal environment which has a cocktail of legal provisions that are arbitrary and inimical to the freedom of the press14. Further, and as stated in the preamble on media regulation above, there exists very weak protection of media practitioners, who have continued to face various vices such as political violence and intimidation as well as arbitrary arrests. As such, caution must be exercised in introducing further statutory regulations with punitive sanctions that will exacerbate the already grave situation. This could, in essence, lead to a situation of regulating an already “suppressed” profession. 13 See https://www.lusakatimes.com/2022/06/16/media-liaison-committee-expresses-shock-at-the-rejectionof-the-draft-bill/ 14 In 1999, a report on necessary media law reforms was released in what is now famously called the ‘Sangwa Report”. See https://issuu.com/misa_zambia_publications/docs/sangwa-report-on-law-reform. Several reports and listings of laws in the Constitution and other statutes have been produced, while several journalists have been arrested and arbitrarily charged under some of the identified laws. The laws include Defamation of the President, Sedition, State Security and secrecy provisions, laws on Obscenity and the Cyber Crime and Cyber Security Act, among others. 20