SECTOR 1 receiving approval from several authorities, or contacting the respective permanent secretary. Information is often deemed ‘sensitive’ or classified as ‘secret’ without any basis or without the provision of valid reasons. This results in access to the information being denied. A point was raised that citizens often fail to demand public information. During a public discourse around budget issues in 2016, it was argued that the government failed to release its budget information for the past four years. In reality, the government had published their budget information annually; but people were merely unaware of this. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 1.3 (2013:1.3; 2011:2.3; 2009:1.2; 2007:1.2; 2005:1.0) 1.8 Websites, blogs and other digital platforms are not required to register with, or obtain permission, from state authorities. There are procedures to follow to receive a domain name. The .zm domain is a Zambian domain managed by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) as provided for under the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act. Given the questionable independence of the ZICTA, this could compromise the anonymity of the website holder. One can register a website with a .zm domain name at the Zambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Zamtel), Iconnect or other Zambian telecommunications and Internet service providers. International domain names fall under international laws and regulations “which are not very strict.” AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2017 23