ZAMBIA MEDIA FREEDOM VIOLATIONS AND VICTORIES 7 February 2017 LEGISLATED GOtv Zambia sues ZNBC and digital service provider TopStar over alleged blocking of some free to air channels carried by it. GOtv had requested the High Court that ZNBC be restricted from disconnecting their services and from continuing to encrypt the signal transmitted by free-toair content providers. GOtv further asked the Court to declare the operation of public signal distribution network by TopStar illegal and unlawful. Later that year GOtv agreed to settle the matter outside court. 15 February 2017 THREATENED The Lusaka Magistrates Court signed an arrest warrant for The Post newspaper proprietor Fred M’membe. Subsequently, armed police officers raided M’membe’s house to arrest him. Some media outlets alleged that the police initially refused to produce the search warrant they carried, others claimed that the police did so upon their arrival at the house. M’membe’s wife, Mutinta Mazoka M’membe, was later taken to the police station for allegedly tearing up the search warrant upon being denied entry into her residence. Some sources claimed that police assaulted Mutinta and tore her dress in the presence of passersby. 20 February 2017 LEGISLATED Mutinta Mazoka M’membe, Oracle media proprietor and publisher of The Mast newspaper, was granted bail of K3,000 (US$310) after she pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstructing police officers carrying out their duty. Mazoka M’membe was summoned to answer to a complaint of contempt of court for allegedly tearing a search warrant on 15 February 2017, when armed police raided her and her husband’s house. 25 February 2017 THREATENED Police and other state operatives in plain clothes raided the premises where The Mast newsroom was believed to be operating from. It turned out that the staff did not operate from these premises. 7 March 2017 LEGISLATED A case was brought against the director of Komboni Radio, Lesa Kasoma who was alleged to have assaulted a police officer, Simon Chisanga, on 5 October 2016. However the media reports refuted the allegations made by police and instead reported: “…the police officers who had been guarding the radio station after its closure brutalised Kasoma who had gone to the radio station to inform the police officers of government’s resolve to lift the suspension of the broadcasting license,“ after a