SECTOR 1 Public officials/civil servants are restricted from giving out information. These restrictions are not contained in any law, per se, but are noted in their employment contracts. Executives in government do not feel compelled to ensure access to information. “The current president has never held a press conference.” Government also has a tendency to treat documents as secret – whether officially or unofficially. The Draft Digital Migration Policy is confidential under the Official Secrets Act. Holding public officials to account is therefore difficult. Another example cited was a recent case where meat from the country’s largest meat producer, Zambeef, was reported to be contaminated through the use of chemicals that were not supposed to be used. “You could see from the stories that there was an issue of lack of ATI.” At a press conference on the issue, the media was told that the results of the testing done to assess this contamination were available, “but they wouldn’t say what the results were.” In addition to the poor sharing of information from public officials, citizens and the media have to contend with outdated government ministry websites. Additionally, information is centralised in Lusaka, and is not readily disseminated to the regions. People with hearing and visual impairments also lack platforms for accessing information. The official language of documents is English, yet the majority of Zambians speak other languages. “Community media has made a difference [to broadening access to information] in terms of providing information in other languages… [so] news and other programmes are conducted in Bemba and Lamba at some community stations, rather than just in English.” The Zambian Governance Foundation and the Zambia Civil Society Organisations have also translated some official documentation into some of the country’s seven major languages. 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 (2011:2.3; 2009:1.2; 2007:1.2; 2005:1.0) AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2013 21