SECTOR 2 2.4 Transparency of news media ownership is guaranteed by law and enforced With traditional media houses, ownership can be traced through the Patents and Companies Registration Agency. In addition, the Companies Act (2017) was revised to ensure that the ‘human beneficial owners’ now need to be specified when registration takes place. However, there remain some media companies where the directors are merely ‘fronts’, and the people who actually finance and control the company don’t appear on the register. With online media, it is a lot more difficult to trace who owns and sponsors them. 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: Score of previous years: ✓ ✓✓✓✓✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 3.0 2017 = 4.7 2.5 Adequate legislation/regulation seeks to promote competition and prevent media concentration and monopolies There is a Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Zambia, as well as a tribunal to deal with issues on anti-competitive practices. However, there is nothing specific addressing the ownership of media houses in Zambia. It has been left to political-economic power to own this. So, the government has substantial control over television and radio stations, as well as newspapers. Regarding legislation, it exists to promote competition and to manage monopolies. One area where competition would be welcome is broadcasting, where ZNBC should fall under the IBA to be regulated on a level playing field. As long as there is a restriction on this, ZNBC has a monopoly, and it becomes difficult for fair competition among the media houses to be in this space. There is also a blurring between a ‘carrier’ and ‘content provider’. Many of the carriers of programmes (such as TopStar or MultiChoice) are also makers AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2021 23