STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA Though it is important and welcome that the District Commissioner expressed happiness and assured the radio station that government had created an enabling environment for the media to operate; rhetoric must be matched with actions. It is important that government creates a truly sustainable environment that the media can operate in. Issues such as licencing, conditions of service for journalists and training must all be discussed to ensure that a truly enabling environment is created. 4.1.3. Freedom of Expression The most pronounced form of threats to freedom of expression on the media in the period under review, was the directive by IBA compelling all radio stations to submit broadcast recordings to IBA every two weeks. The directive captured in the Daily Mail newspaper of 15th May 2019, carried the heading “Radio Televisions get IBA directive.” In the article, IBA had directed radio and television stations countrywide to submit broadcast recordings to it every two weeks to ease monitoring. Further, electronic media houses were ordered to submit their editorial policies to the authority. According to IBA Director General, Ms. Josephine Mapoma, the new directive was in pursuant to section 38 of the IBA Act number 17 and that the recordings to be submitted should consist of all discussion programmes, including paid for programmes where applicable, talk shows, news bulletins and news analyses, as a well as musical programmes. Other types of content such as movies and dramas, among others were to be requested by IBA when need arose. Ms. Mapoma stated that: “The public may wish to know that one of the functions of the authority is to enforce compliance of broadcasting within the conditions of the licenses issued under the Act. “In this regard, the authority has inspectors who over the years have relied on post-monitoring of stations, owing to the fact that IBA is not present in all the districts where broadcasting stations exist” She warned media house against editing the recordings to alter the original content as this will constitute a breach. Ms. Mapoma said this was in accordance to Section 22 (5) (d) of the IBA (Amendment) Act of 2010 which provides: “…… without prejudice to the generality of sub-section 9i” The paper further reported that: 10