STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA person‟s content. The advent of mobile phones, internet access, and digital cameras allowed citizens to engage in public debate at unprecedented levels,” the committee observed. 4.4 Towards enactment of Access to Information Bill In the second quarter (April – June), the debate on the ATI was overshadowed by the intensity of the debate and caused by the proposed cyber security bills which were to be tabled in the next sitting of parliament. In the said period, The Mast Newspaper on 29th May, cited JCTR Programs Officer Lloyd Bwalya who observed that Zambia would be more progressed if the ATI bill became law. It was observed further by a media expert that the delay in enacting the ATI bill to law was because politicians were afraid that the media will expose their hidden vices34. And media expert Sally Chiwama says politicians in the country are pushing the agenda not to enact the Access to Information Bill into law for fear that media will expose more hidden vices. In an interview after a consultative forum on the ATI Bill at Luangwa House on Friday, Bwalya said there was need to get the consensus of the people on the Bill. He said people needed to know what Access to Information Bill was all about and the importance to enact it into law. Bwalya disclosed that if the bill was enacted into law, Zambia would be progressive as people would hold their leaders accountable. “Knowledge is power and if citizens are knowledgeable, they will make informed decisions that will feed into the development agenda of the nation,” he said. “Those pushing the agenda not to enact the bill have their reasons not to do so as the notion that media will abuse the law by having more power is not true as the 34 The Mast Newspaper - Politicians afraid of ATI law – Chiwama – 29th May, 2018 28