SECTOR 2 Prime TV was an example of a government ban on advertising in 2010, in which guidelines stipulated that no business was to be done with this television station. Unusually, this was done in writing. Previously there was also an advertising and purchase ban on The Post. Independent publications such as News Diggers and The Mast are very thin (as little as four pages) compared to the government-supported Daily Mail, Times and Daily Nation, which can be up to 20 pages and are full of advertisements. “The public’s appreciation of the media’s ideological positions is very low.” If people are told that a certain private radio station shouldn’t be supported, they will obey that order. There are other publications, such as The Mast, which are owned by politicians. Their headlines will, of course, focus on the Socialist Party because the newspaper is owned by the wife of the party leader. 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: ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓ 1.9 2017 = 2.3 2.13 The size of the advertising market can support a diversity of media outlets The IBA has issued numerous licences to television stations. But when a television channel wishes to be distributed via a platform such as TopStar, they will be charged ZMK375,000 (US$17,000) a month for the privilege. The major advertisers in the country are telecoms providers, banks and manufacturing companies. Fighting for this revenue are over 150 radio stations, several newspapers and over 45 television stations. The result is that Zambia’s small advertising market mostly wants to please the government, and so 80% of the advertising budget will go to government media, with only the remaining 20% shared across private media. It was claimed that even all advertising in the country could not support even one ZNBC television channel, even though their rates are comparatively low. Even ZMK1,000 (US$45) for an advertisement is a lot for a non-governmental organisation to spend on advertising. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2021 29