STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 3. 2020 such as license fees, copyright, tax and other statutory obligations were still collected from media outlets, thereby straining the few resources at their disposal. Also, the media were affected by the depreciation of the Kwacha because major inputs in the operations of the media are imported at high cost. Examples of these inputs include newsprint, audio-visual equipment and international news and entertainment programmes, among others. As such, the depreciation of the Kwacha increased the cost of these inputs (which is already high) to astronomical levels. It is for this reason that some scholars have called for a review of the sustainability of media outlets, particularly newspapers 29 . This is further validated by findings of the 2019/2020 regional ‘Trust in the media report’ conducted by MISA, where print magazines have suffered most in terms of the negative impact of the transforming media landscape across Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi and remain largely inexistent. The decline in credit lending appetite by banking institutions also negatively affected media houses as they could not easily access capital funding for various activities against the backdrop of reduced advertising revenue. This, therefore, meant media houses had to temporarily put some of their planned activities on hold. For some media houses, the need to reduce the number of staff became imminent, a situation which is dire for the many employees that had to be laidoff. All the interview participants pointed out the dire effect of the negative economic conditions on the media in the country. As with the previous quarter and unlike other sectors such as the arts, no facility was made available and specifically tailored for the media sector in view of the economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, none of the stimulus packages and initiatives rolled out by the government to cushion the impact of the pandemic30 had any direct benefit to national address on 25th June, 2020 included a K10 billion medium term refinancing facility meant to restructure, refinance or extend credit to businesses and households impacted by COVID-19 and issuance of a COVID-19 bond amounting to K8 billion as a stimulus package to enhance economic activity. The full speech is available at https://www.mof.gov.zm/?wpfb_dl=244 29 Such as Banda, F. (2004). Newspapers and magazines-a question of sustainability. Lusaka: MISA. Additionally, according to the Free Press Initiative survey on the impact of COVID-19 on Zambia’s news media, newspapers were identified as being most affected by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 30 Some of the measures as announced in the previous quarter by President Edgar Lungu in a 28