STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 4, 2020 expression, access to information), citizen participation and the rule of law among many others12. To the contrary, the State Security Act promotes a culture of secrecy in which several vices such as corruption and abuse of office can easily flourish. This is because public officials can classify even information which is in the best interest of the public as well as use the law as an excuse to avoid providing information to journalists. It is therefore important that only those threats to the integrity of state security are captured under this law to avoid it hanging over the heads of media practitioners and citizens alike like a proverbial sword of Damocles13. The corollary from the incident involving the arrest of the two Ministry of Finance officials14 is the urgent need to enact a law on access to information that will guide the dissemination of information, privileges of citizens and procedures to be followed in obtaining such information. This is further tackled in the sub-section on progress made in the advocacy for the ATI Bill below. Similarly, the quarter under review witnessed arrests under defamation of the President as provided in Section 69 of the Penal Code. This, as stated above, is one of the laws premised on the clawback clauses in Article 20 of the Zambian Constitution. One notable incident in this regard was the questioning of Saboi Imboela, a spokesperson of the opposition NDC party, for alleged defamation of the President in a post made on her Facebook page 15. As argued in the second quarter report, the law is inimical to the freedom of expression as it grants law enforcement authorities arbitrary discretion with regard to determination of ‘defamatory matter’ (whether positive or negative), insulates the person occupying the office of President 12 See https://www.sjsu.edu/people/ken.nuger/courses/pols120/Ch-3-Principles-of-Democracy.pdf 13 See Nkandu, E. (2012). Study Report on media laws and policies in Zambia. Lusaka: EU & MISA; See also Chanda, A.W. and L. Mufalo (1999). Handbook of media laws in Zambia. Lusaka: ZIMA; see also Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Service (2000). Report of the taskforce on media law reform. 14 At the time of compilation of this report, no official update had been provided on the two suspects whether in custody or bonded and their prospective appearance in Court. Media and communication organisations continued to advocate for their unconditional release and withdrawal of all charges. 15 According to information made available by NDC Deputy Media Director Kirby Kaoma who was with Ms Imboela at the time and confirmed the same to MISA Zambia when a follow up was made. P a g e 23 | 56