STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA Three bills to enhance cyber security and curb abuse of social media are expected to be tabled in the next sitting of parliament. Minister of Transport and Communication Brian Mushimba said in an interview yesterday that the cyber security and cybercrime data protection and e-commerce bills will soon be discussed by Cabinet before they are taken to parliament. “The bills, which were initially segregated into five, have been revised to three and they are going to Cabinet now,” Mr. Mushimba said. The Minister is hopeful that the bills will be presented to parliament in June this year. This pronouncement was criticised by different stakeholders for its potential to suppress freedom of expression on the Internet. Opposition political parties, media advocates and practitioners among others have been asked to seek audience with government to check the contents of the bills to ensure they do not prohibit freedom of expression. On 13th April, People's Alliance for Change (PAC) President Andyford Banda told News Diggers that the real motive for the introduction of cyber security bills by the PF government was to curtail divergent views and not to curb cyber bullying4. Banda contends that the three crafted bills had nothing to do with curbing cyber bullying or any abuse of social media because the party (Patriotic Front) had already demonstrated that it never tolerated those who held different views. “So as PAC, we condemn all these regulations until the PF can demonstrate that they can tolerate divergent views. And if you look for example of Pilato, Pilato is there holding divergent views and imagine those posts (on Facebook) that he puts on social media, to the PF that would be called cyber bullying or something like that…. Am sure in that bill which is hidden somewhere, they have already put something to curtail such posts. So we condemn that. And if they want to implement anything, they need to make sure that other stakeholders are involved because we 4 News Diggers - Social Media Regulation Meant to Curtail Divergent Views – PAC – 13th April, 2018 9