CHAPTER TWO Findings 2.1 Legal Environment 2.1.1 ATI Bill The much anticipated Access to Information (ATI) bill has to date, not yet been presented to Parliament. There has been no official statement from Government on how far the process has gone or on the way forward. On February 12, 2015, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Chishimba Kambwili informed the nation that he would ensure the ATI bill was tabled in Parliament at the next sitting. However, Parliament resumed sitting and adjourned without the bill being presented. On March 2, 2015, the Minister announced that the bill had been submitted to the Attorney General’s Office for clearance pending presentation to Parliament. Information Permanent Secretary, Mr. Godfrey Malama reiterated this position when he said that the bill was still under consideration before it could be presented to Parliament for adoption. He said there was need to have hope that the government would ‘decide’ to enact the bill. Mr. Malama made these remarks at the launch of the MISA State of the Media Report on June 26, 2015 at Protea Hotel Lusaka. This was the last piece of information heard on the bill. It is not clear at this point if the bill is still at the Attorney General’s Office or if it has been returned to the Ministry. There was an unexpected turn of events, with both the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the Republican President say that government was thinking twice about enacting the ATI bill. The announcements were made at different fora following publication of a story in the Post Newspaper that government had contracted a US$192 million loan from China to improve security wings in the country.1 Mr. Kambwili also ordered Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani to arrest Post informers and warned that the state would not be moved to enact the ATI bill if the media practiced what he termed unethical journalism. There was outcry from stakeholders following the pronouncements. The Civil Society Coalition on the Access to Information Bill expressed disappointment that the President felt that some sections of the media would use the bill irresponsibly. The following is an extract from a statement that was released to the press; 1 See https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/05/10/president-edgar-lungu-thinking-of-not-enacting-the-freedom-ofinformation-bill 9