e. Training fellowships or professional development policy Seven newsrooms indicated that their policy existed but only 2 newsrooms shared it with the public. This study revealed that most media organisations do not have this policy in place which poses a danger to professionalism as trained journalists or media organisations become susceptible to media capture. In follow-up interviews, news editors said that newsroom staff tended to find their own training programmes, and would request permission from their editor to attend abroad. However, they indicated some staff are seconded for specialised training locally. Of the media organisations surveyed, 15 community radio stations indicated that in their training policy, there is a clause that untrained staff who are sponsored for training within the country by the organisation sign an agreement to continue working for the organisation for a period of four years upon completion of the studies. Previous research by CfA established that training and junkets were one of the ways news organisations in Zambia came under foreign influence. Lack of policies to guide foreign conferences, training and fellowships was one of the weaknesses that the study established as leading to media capture. This lack of policy to provide guidance on who trains newsroom staff means that there could be a 'return on investment' required from the trainers. It also would pre-define who the actors are they would not accept training from in order to safeguard against possible influence. A clear policy also provides a clear guideline on how influence like this will be treated by newsrooms. Newsrooms should develop policies that caution against accepting financial favours and gifts as this has the potential to influence performance and cause conflicts of interest at work. f. Public-facing editorial policy From the survey, respondents said only 10% shared this policy with members of the public. The majority of newsrooms indicated that while they have an overarching editorial policy in place, it was not shared with the public. Newsrooms are advised to have this policy and make it accessible to the public to show news organisations' commitment to sharing impartial, accurate and credible content. g. Privacy policy No newsrooms indicated that they had this policy in place during the survey. Our research found 6 out of 50 media organisations published this on their website. Newsrooms are legally required to have a privacy policy document which informs their audience of the type of information that is collected on the website, and how the newsroom intends to use that data. h. Ethics policy This policy was declared by 26% of the surveyed newsrooms, but out of these only 38% shared it publicly. This study established that this is the most shared policy among all newsroom policies. Cite this report as: Mwale et al, 'Transparency and trust: newsroom policies in Zambia', African Data and Democracy Observatory, April 2023. . 8 8