STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 3. 2020 Mr. Moyo in the Company of Police Officers is reported to have pounced on the radio station last evening and stopped a paid for recorded UPND program claiming the radio station needed to acquire a permit from the Police. The Zambia Institute of Independent Media Alliance has challenged the Zambia police service to arrest the District Commissioner, labelling him as a traceable perpetrator of media attacks. ZIIMA President Jajah Coulibaly says it is sad that in this time and era, officers from the police service who were used to close down PASME FM in Petauke district Eastern province at the orders of a civil servant do not even understand the law but ignorantly act on political instructions. Mr. Coulibaly said ZIIMA is shocked that civil servants under the current leadership go unpunished despite committing crimes, the latest ones being the Petauke and Mwinilunga DC who also blocked well-wishers from donating. And MISA Zambia Chairperson Helen Mwale says her Organisation has received with great disappointment the reports that PASME FM in Petauke District has been closed by order of the District Commissioner in Petauke for airing a radio programme featuring an opposition political party leader. Ms. Mwale says the report indicates that the Petauke District Commissioner, Ms. Velenasi Moyo went to PASME FM yesterday evening and stopped the broadcast of a paid-for recorded radio programme featuring the United Party for National Development. Ms. Mwale said MISA Zambia finds this senseless act by the District Commissioner not only primitive but an assault and an affront to democracy and the right to citizens to fully express themselves through their freedom of expression and hinders the ability of citizens to freely access information without intimidation whatsoever. The role of the media remains to educate, inform as well as to entertain and it should be given sufficient leverage to do so. She has reminded the District commissioner that the Independent Broadcasting Authority is the only institution that is mandated by law to regulate media stations as outlined in the IBA Act following the abrogation of laid down procedures and code of ethics. The IBA also has a complaints channel and procedure that the District Commissioner should follow if at all she strongly feels that the station erred in any way. Alert update-19th August (News Diggers) Victory LUSAKA High Court Judge Sharon Newa has dismissed a case in which the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) had sued ADD leader Charles Milupi and News Diggers Media Limited over a publication that allegedly accused it of corruption and mismanagement of members’ funds. Justice Newa said in her ruling that a corporate body cannot commit the offence of corruption, although its officers can and, therefore, no cause of action had been revealed on which NAPSA could attach liability on Milupi and News Diggers. She therefore dismissed the action for want of cause of action. 47