STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBA govern the land and those that protect individuals from being abused in the media, government takes opportunity to harass or intimidate media, undercutting press freedom. 3.2. Economic and Technological environment The economic and technological environment for the media sector was largely a continuation of the challenges witnessed in the previous year. There were some positives breaking the trend on the technology curve but largely a negative outlook continued on the economic front for the larger part of the quarter. One of the major economic opportunities media could tap into is the relative stability the local currency, the Kwacha has enjoyed over the last few months against major convertibles such as the United States dollar. The outlook was improved by the promise of a relatively favourable economic projection premised on improved liquidity on the financial market while the production costs of most media products was projected to have relative stability. This however, had nearly to none direct effect on the amount of revenue that most media houses relied on through improved advertising. Media industry players attested to this apparent fact that their accounts were not likely to improve as a result of these developments. According to one stakeholder, “…the economic environment has been harsh. Most advertisers reduced on their spending while others withdrew completely. Therefore, media houses are struggling to make ends meet…”xi Another opportunity that media took advantage of was the improved electricity supply situation which has improved tremendously since the turn of the year with relatively stable electricity supply that would improve their operations. This meant most of them were able to save by avoiding using alternative sources of energy, popular among them generator sets to keep their operations afloat. To this end, compounded by relatively improved revenue levels, most of the industry players said this cooled the running costs of producing content against their bottom lines. Generally, the stakeholders felt the growth of the media sector had relative stability owing to a stabilised but stalling economic situation in the country which had a direct impact on the performance of the industry. Overall, the continued relative stability in the economy continued to affect the media and particularly the broadcasting media largely because most broadcast equipment was imported and a stable kwacha meant that radio and TV stations could plan better. The print media were also affected as newsprint and other equipment are imported. 13 | P a g e