THE WAY FORWARD 1. What were the developments in the media environment in the last three to four years? Positive Developments • The emergence of community radio and television stations. This has led to a rise in freedom of expression. • The emergence of social media platforms, allowing citizens to express themselves. Unfortunately, this may now be curtailed by the new cyber laws. • Moves towards self-regulation. The proposals regarding statutory selfregulation are still being discussed with the government and are not yet tabled in parliament. The background was that the government had threatened media to regulate; otherwise, they would come up with a law. Given a choice between a government law and media self-regulation, the decision was ‘statutory self-regulation’. It was the obvious choice because “we had a gun pointed at our heads.” From the year 2000, voluntary selfregulation had failed twice. Most media were not coming forward, despite the threat of statutory regulation. It also failed because media houses were reluctant to give financial contributions to such a body to keep it running. Therefore, it was a compromise to adopt Statutory Self-regulation. There has been a systemic closure of civic space in Zambia. The NGO Bill also threatened to restrict the operations of civil society, but they fought back, with the government eventually being taken to court. Negative Developments 54 • Radio stations are invaded by political party cadres, especially in rural areas, especially if they are critical of the ruling party. • Covid-19 has impacted the financial sustainability of most media houses. This has affected media freedom. You can’t be independent if you are not financially independent. • The closure of Prime TV has created a 'culture of fear'. If a licence is revoked, is it legitimate to then invade the operations of the station? “It sends a cold shiver down the spine of many in the media, including public media. It was a huge blow to the country.” When you need balanced information, you could watch both ZNBC news and Prime TV news to get a rich cocktail of information. Closing the station was inimitable to the public interest. • There seems to be a need by the government to control the social media space. They control print and broadcasting, but they have struggled to stake a claim in the social media space. This informs the new Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Acts. In the social media landscape, there is a polarisation of media houses on social media. The government’s stated ambition is to control the social media space, especially Facebook. Efforts are being made to obliterate dissenting voices on social media. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2021