STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 4, 2020 informers alike. It is important that clarity is made and media practitioners protected from becoming targets by understanding their work as being critical in the public interest. Such revelations also have the likelihood of instilling self and institutional censorship in a bid to avoid being caught in the web of such a dragnet. This is, essentially, a chilling effect and further undermines the roles of the media, particularly the watchdog role of holding leaders and institutions accountable. The technological environment in the quarter under review was relatively more positive than that recorded in the previous quarter, particularly in view of the fewer number of violations and arrests with regard to freedom of expression online. The quarter witnessed positive developments and steps towards the enhancement of mobile and internet technology services as precursors for the possible introduction of 5G network in Zambia, a move that will further digitise media activities and improve citizen access to information. The quarter was, however, dented by allegations of possible deployment of spyware for the interception of calls, text messages and location data, a move which if not disproved is likely to have a chilling effect on the media. 4.0. CONCLUSION The review in this report has shown that there has been a minor improvement in some of the key thematic areas in the fourth quarter as compared to the previous three quarters. The effect of the occurrences under key thematic areas cannot be overemphasised despite the marginal improvements. The socio-political environment was affected by the isolated cases of harassment of media personnel and high profile political guests by police and district commissioners, contrary to standard practice and the provision of the law. This was much worse in the second and third quarters when several of such cases were witnessed, with some being more brutal and involving property damage by political party cadres. While the corona virus pandemic statistics reached the year’s lowest point in the quarter under review, there was a significant spike towards the end of the quarter, a situation that is indicative of a resurgence of another wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. This could possibly lead to reinstatement of preventive measures which greatly affected the media in the second and third quarters. P a g e 38 | 56