STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 4, 2020 and other publications, telephony, telegraphy, posts, wireless broadcasting or television; or • Right to protect one's reputation • Radio • Telecommunications • Television c. that imposes restrictions on public officers; and except so far as that provision or, the thing done under the authority thereof as the ca Several subsidiary laws have been promulgated in respect of Clause 3a and it is on this premise that the State Security Act exists, purportedly for the protection of safety and security. It specifically has provisions relating to state security with regard to espionage, sabotage and other activities prejudicial to the interests of the State as well as providing for purposes incidental to or connected therewith. While the law is certainly important for the integrity of vital information and installations among other things, there is need to strike a balance with information that is generally in the interest of the public, especially in the absence of a provision on Access to Information which has stalled in Zambia for over eighteen years. The danger of the State Security Act as demonstrated in the arrest of Messrs Kandeta and Mwelwa is the incrimination of harmless information that is in public interest. It is standard practice that embargoed (budget) speeches are shared with specific media institutions (even state media) to enable them conduct real-time visualisations, expert analysis and review during presentation of the budget11. This is to ensure that there is no distortion of facts or misrepresentation of information to the public during and after the delivery of such a technical speech. The contents of the said budget speech are public knowledge and derived from submissions made by various entities and members of the public. It is therefore capricious for the authorities to effect such an arrest on something that is standard practice and in the public interest. It is a vexatious act based on the extremities in the law as raised by various stakeholders in their advocacy against the laws deemed to be inimical to the freedom of expression in Zambia. As such, enforcement of such laws needs to be balanced with the principles espoused by Article 20 on the freedom of expression, particularly that of reasonable justification in a democratic society. A democratic society is premised on good governance, liberty (such as freedom of 11 In PR communications, an embargoed release is a media release or announcement that is shared with the media in advance of its publishing date. Unlike ‘off the record’ which is never supposed to be published at all, embargoed information is intended to be published. But, it is only meant to be published at the time disclosed by the release distributer. Read more at https://publicrelationssydney.com.au/embargoes-what-are-they-andwhen-to-use-them-2/. P a g e 22 | 56