STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 3. 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The State of the Media Report is a quarterly assessment of the media environment in Zambia. This edition covers the third quarter of 2020 i.e. July-September. This assessment and record describes the media situation in Zambia during the period and was prepared under the auspices of MISA Zambia Chapter. This report includes a number of interesting occurrences that added new developments, twists and opportunities alike for the overall media environment in Zambia. The socio-political environment was found to be relatively unfree, an assessment which is largely attributed to the political attacks and intimidation of media outlets and practitioners alike. These include a brutal attack on Mafken Radio in Mufulira as well as the illegal closure of PASME Radio in Petauke by the District Commissioner, among other occurrences. This continued to undermine the independence of media outlets and also instilled self-censorship for fear of political retribution. The legal environment was neutral as certain significant and relatively positive trends were observed. These included the approval of the Media Council Bill which could benefit the media fraternity by providing protection and improving professional standards. Further, legal victories observed in cases such as that between NAPSA and News Diggers Newspaper as well as the absence of new legislation aimed at stifling freedom of the press augmented the status of the legal environment in the quarter. On the other hand, the economic environment was found to be unstable mainly because of adverse economic conditions as well as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic which did not spare media houses. This led to an increase in the cost of doing business for media houses and loss of advertising revenue in view of reduced consumer spending and business activity. Further, the continued depreciation of the Kwacha against major convertible currencies, electricity load shedding and the difficulty in accessing credit all undermined the economic independence and financial sustainability of the media in the quarter. The technological environment was stable given the positive developments recorded during the quarter, such as the innovative use of media technology to augment learning for schools, whose calendar was affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the state of freedom of 6