STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 4, 2020 According to media regulations, we are not supposed to get permission from the police to do any programming. So that is why we didn’t follow it up with IBA and MISA…Going forward, we see this being a big problem because this police department has really embraced that issue of media houses getting permission from them to do anything. Us every time we have someone from the ruling party, there is no problem, they can come anytime and any day without announcing, they go on air, their programme will run. Nobody will even follow up with us to say ‘why did you allow the Minister, the MP?’, they won’t. [But] somebody from the opposition, it will always be an issue. From our experience, whenever we want to host a political figure, when we go to the police which we have done in the past, they will always say we don’t have man power, we can’t provide enough security, so don’t do the programme”2 The action of Police and District Commissioners interfering in the operations of media houses whenever they host opposition party leaders has been recorded in all the quarters of the year and remains an issue of concern, despite reduced occurrence in the fourth quarter. Firstly, the rightful institution charged with the mandate of regulating the operations of broadcast media houses is the Independent Broadcasting Authority which enjoys such powers vested on it by the IBA Act No. 17 of 2002 as amended by Act 26 of 2010. These statutes empower the Authority to regulate the broadcasting industry, promulgate standards and codes of practice, issue, suspend and cancel licences as well as investigate and preside over complaints against a broadcast media house inter alia. It is therefore trite that officials such as District Commissioners continue to interfere in the operations of media houses, further assuming regulatory powers over such media outlets. The spirit behind the establishment of the Authority is to set out an independent process that accords pluralism and diversity of media outlets while safeguarding the public and other stakeholders without bias or undue interference. As such, if such officers as the DC (a government official and civil servant) have any grievances with the operations of a media house, they must be in the fore-front to uphold the provisions of the law as opposed to taking matters in their hands. This is against the directive and counsel given in the second quarter by Chief Government Spokesperson and Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, Dora Siliya, after an incident at Mpika and Chinsali Radio Stations. It is, therefore, prudent that government takes decisive action against such erring officers if its pronouncements and 2 According to a report carried in News Diggers Newspaper of 23rd December, 2020. See https://diggers.news/local/2020/12/23/police-summon-mpika-radio-staff-for-hosting-kalaba/ P a g e 11 | 56