State of the media report July - Dec 2022 What laws provide for detention/ arrest or request for information from journalists in relation to the incidents of covering protests/police investigations or raids of suspects and also information police need to use for investigations, and he said The Police are guided by the Police Act and they follow it when dealing with journalists who come in the way of their work and treat them as any other citizens, the respondent further said ,”if a journalist is in the way of the police work, we treat them as a suspect not as a journalist”. The respondent was further asked if the affected journalists identified themselves with the police, the respondent said “That’s the problem we have, journalists do not have their ID’s on them most times when covering protests, they don’t wear press regalia to make it easy for the police to distinguish protesters from journalists .Nowadays even those camera people who are freelance want to term themselves as journalists and they find themselves at assignments that are volatile and they have no ID’s, so that’s a problem for us, we take them to the Police station so they can answer a few questions and tell us why they came where police were conducting an operation without any invitation to cover the said assignment” Regarding what can be done to improve the working relationship between police and media, the respondent said there was need for the police and the media to have more fora’s where they can exchange information and to get to understand each other’s profession. Asked why Muvi TV journalist Innocent Phiri and Camera person Obvious Kapunda were detained overnight at the police station despite producing Press Identity Cards, the respondent said “The journalist and camera person from Muvi TV were told to leave the premises upon arrival but they insisted on staying and so police officers work was being obstructed hence the charge was slapped on the two”. When asked to describe the relationship between the police and the media, the respondent said “It’s very cordial, however when police are conducting an operation and they ask journalists to leave police to do their work they insist on being there and that creates a problem which sees them being detained or arrested”. In conclusion, it is important for the police to uphold the rights of the media and respect their role in society, especially when covering events of public interest. The police should work together with the media to ensure that they can perform their duties without any obstruction or intimidation. The journalists who were detained are Kalemba reporter Moses Makwaya, Muvi TV journalists Aphius Kaputula and Agnes Nampasa as well as Josephat Mafuta KBN and Baxter Mutambo MEDIA 28 were forced to give statements for possible use against Dr Sampa in court. 27