State of the media report Q1-2021 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The State of the Media Report is a quarterly assessment of the media environment in Zambia. This edition covers the first quarter of 2021; January to March 2021. This assessment and record describes the media trends in Zambia during the period and was prepared under the auspices of the 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 in the quarter was not favourable given the occurrence of incidents that undermined the freedom of expression and of the media. Among the notable occurrences were violent political attacks on media houses, namely Liberty Radio (Mporokoso) on 9th February, Luswepo Radio on 21st February and Radio Chete on 10th March. The incidence of attacks on media houses is reminiscent of the streak of attacks that rocked media houses in 2020, with damage to property experienced in some cases. The attacks witnessed in the quarter under review have the potential to instil self-censorship among media practitioners and thereby prevent the media from performing their function as a civic forum for debate. Similarly, the legal environment was repressive, mainly owing to the enactment of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act No. 2 of 2021 which poses a threat to the freedom of expression and access to information based on some of its potentially suppressive clauses. The status of the legal environment was exacerbated by the lack of progress on the ATI Bill as well as other provisions that could safeguard the role of the media. The economic environment equally posted a negative outlook due to poor performance of most economic variables and the resultant effect on the operations of media houses. While the outlook in the quarter under review was more stable and less severe when compared to the quarters in the previous year, several factors continued to compound the operations of the media, among them, the continued high cost of doing business due to currency depreciation, reduced economic activity, continued load shedding and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The technological environment was equally affected by the enactment of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act No. 2 of 2021 with provisions that could potentially restrict freedom of expression online. On a positive note, the statistics released by the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority indicated significant growth in internet penetration and mobile telephone subscriptions, further forecasting technological improvements for 2021 which are likely to revolutionise media broadcasting and media communication. 6