STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 3. 2020 had to resort to the use of alternative sources of electricity, chief among them generators. This is because most media operations rely on equipment that requires uninterrupted power supply. This includes equipment such as transmitters, studio control units and industrial print presses, among others. As such, interruption of electricity supply puts the media outlets off-air or delays printing of newspapers (with a lot of wastage in some cases), leading to major losses. Additionally, the cost of maintaining alternative electricity sources such as generators remained high due to the cost of fuel, an essential commodity. Overall, the economic environment in the third quarter remained unstable in view of the many economic variables that were in a state of flux, thereby negatively impacting the economic sustainability of media operations with an uncertain outlook. This status is no different from the economic environment in the second quarter which was equally unstable and also experienced economic shocks that negatively impacted media operations. Similar trends of currency volatility, reduced economic activity and consumer spending (which affected advertising revenue), reduced appetite for credit by banks and continued electricity load management were existent in both quarters. This is despite an insignificant (marginal) improvement in certain economic variables. 3.4. TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT The technological environment in the quarter under review was somewhat reminiscent of the first and second quarters, based on a number of occurrences observed. Most notable on the technological front was the ‘regulatory turf war’ involving the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and Spring Television, an online broadcast station after the latter aired a misleading story involving former Minister of General Education, David Mabumba on 29th July. Following the broadcast by Spring TV, the IBA, through its Director-General, Josephine Mapoma, issued the following statement on 30th July35: 35 As circulated by the IBA and also shared on the official Facebook page. 30