SECTOR 1 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: 1.5 (2011:3.1; 2009:1.8; 2007:1.1; 2005:1.2) 1.7 Public information is easily accessible, guaranteed by law, to all citizens. Access to information (ATI) is highly problematic in Zambia, especially for media practitioners. “This is one of the ongoing battles... we have been fighting for ATI for about 12 years now.” To date, there is no ATI legislation, and state-held information is not easily accessible. There are no express guarantees for ATI, and the media usually has to fall back on Article 20 in the constitution to gain public information. “Right now, you can go to a minister, and he/she will say ‘I don’t run government through the media’, which means that government doesn’t even feel obliged to release information to citizens.” A civil society task force has been constituted under the Ministry of Information to work with government on the draft ATI Bill through what is meant to be a consultative process. However, the task force has not met for over a year, despite hearsay that the draft law (which was supposed to be made public on 6 June, 2012) is ready to go to parliament. One panellist noted that those involved on the task force had been “put under oath not to disclose the contents of the draft law”. “The issue is lack of access, and even the draft law on ATI is inaccessible.” The ease of access to information may also depend on whom one approaches. Staffs at the Ministry of Gender were cited as being helpful in providing various organisations with information, including full access to the Gender Act and the draft Gender Policy. “It often depends on the ministry and the content of the law to which access is being sought.” 20 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2013