STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA under review, papers that published stories related to the media which were monitored in relation to the State of the Media were the Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail, The Mast Newspaper, News Diggers and the Daily Nation and some online newspapers. During this period, incidents of harassment of media practitioners and media houses slightly reduced compared to the second quarter – July to September. The fact that media practitioners were nonetheless harassed, worse still, at the hands of the Zambia Police, was in itself a demonstration of lack of political will by the government. This has been a recurring trend throughout the year. There is need to find a lasting solution that ensures safety and peaceful working environment for media practitioners and media houses. 4.0 FINDINGS - OVERVIEW 4.1 Policy and Statutory Framework 4.1.1 Internet Call Tax The debate surrounding social media regulation has continued as government and the public are in contention over the need to reduce the level of social media regulation. Following the announcement on the need to introduce three bills to regulate the cyber space, government later announced that it would introduce a 30 ngwee tax on internet calls. At first it was WhatsApp calls, and now it has included Facebook calls. Government on 6th August was quoted by the Daily Nation justifying the proposed 30 ngwee tax on internet calls1. According to the Daily Nation: Government and Tele-communication companies have been losing US$22 million annually as a result of internet phone calls while enriching Facebook and WatsApp giants, hence the introduction of 30 Ngwee tariff. Some stakeholders had questioned cabinet‟s approval of the issuance of the Statutory Instrument to facilitate the introduction of the 30 Ngwee-a-day tariff on internet calls. 1 Daily Nation – Free Calls Drain $22m- Thirty Ngwee Tariff to sustain conventional operators – 6th August, 2018 7