State of the media report July - Dec 2022 arrived at the scene and wand when asked whether he was aware what law the police used to detain him and whether it was justified, the respondent said he was charged with obstruction of police officers and added that it was not justification enough therefore was illegal because as a journalist, he had a duty to report news and disseminate it accordingly without being intimidated or oppressed. When asked whether he has covered such incidents before the respondent said he has but it was the first time he was detained and charged by police for doing his job. The respondent was further asked whether he understood the law that protects him as a journalist and he responded by saying it was article 20 of the Zambian Constitution which guarantees press freedom of the media. In responding to a question regarding whether he understands the law which protects him as a journalist, the responded said he is protected by article 20 of the Zambian constitution which guarantees freedom of the press. Obvious Kapunda a 48 year old male of Lusaka has worked as a Camera person for 15 years. “It really affected me because he could not communicate with my family for more than 20 hours, I was stressed because they must have been worried whether I was okay” When the respondent was further asked how the detention affected his work and he said that he was affected because he couldn’t work as he was only released after 15:00 hours the next day. Asked on whether he was able to obtain legal support, the respondent said he was able to through his colleague Innocent. When asked what police should do next time journalists go where they are working from, the respondent said police and journalists needed to communicate better with each other so they can both do their work freely. On facilitation of press freedom by the police, the respondent said “Police should give space to journalists to do their work because they are also members of the community”. Below was the response from Zambia Police : “The journalists insisted on not leaving and therefore interfered with the police operation, leading to their arrest and subsequent charging with obstruction. Our actions were justified, as the journalists’ presence was obstructing our work, and we had to ensure the safety and security of all parties involved in the operation.” The 5 respondents below were all picked up by police as they covered the Protest against LGBTQ by Dr. Brian Sampa. Alphas Kaputula is, a 29 year old journalist who works for Muvi TV and worked for 3 years as a journalist. “I missed a deadline because I was at the police station and my phone which is use for my work developed a fault because it was dropped we were being instructed to quickly get into the police vehicle when we were covering the protest”. He said When asked whether he produced any identification when approached by police, the respondent said he produced an ID but the police disregarded it. The respondent was also asked if he have covered similar incidents before and whether he faced similar conduct with the police and he said “Yes I have covered similar protest and the last time police found me at the scene I produced an ID and they didn’t take me for questioning, only the protestor was picked up”. Asked whether he understood the laws that protects him as a journalist, the respondent said he does not know the specific law but he knows he has the right to cover news and write stories for broadcasting. 23