STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA He described the kind of reporting of the privately-owned newspaper as inspiring. Mumba, the MMD president, was speaking when he paid a courtesy call on The Mast newspaper offices in Lusaka’s Ibex Hill area on Monday. “What happens in the media is of great interest to us and I speak as the leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). We have been greatly inspired by The Mast. We are fully aware of the challenges that you have faced over the years,” Mumba said. “One thing I can see is that you are just a group of people that have refused to die. It gives us great encouragement! Even under very difficult circumstances, you’ve continued to demonstrate tremendous maturity in the manner that you handle your stories. Just a few days ago, and I wasn’t even aware I’m going to be here, my wife was talking to me about The Mast and she said ‘with all that they have gone through, their editorial seems to be so balanced. They are strong on facts but they are not expressing bitterness and if it were others, the newspaper would just be a piece of bitterness and hitting back.” The paper further reported that Mr. Mumba hailed the factual stance of The Mast newspaper. “You’ve been extremely factual and when we read the editorial [comment], we think that you would like to hit the truth. Basically, my conclusion is that you’ve got some of the senior journalists around here that are not just local but they are international material,” Mumba noted. “Please, keep it up. We have a country to preserve. All of us get angry, especially those of us that go in and out of jail. There is a tendency of us getting angry and our speeches being out of anger.” The opposition leader emphasised that with all the operational difficulties The Mast went through, especially in its infancy, it tried to remain relevant to its readers. 6.1. Continued incarceration of Derrick Sinjela In the last quarter of 2018, the Supreme Court of Zambia jailed journalist and blogger, Derick Sinjela for 18months for contempt. The Court sentenced Sinjela for his remarks over the Savenda Vs Stanbic case in which corruption and irregularity were alleged. 27