STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBA 3.3 Legal and Political environment The political and legal landscape concerning the media in the second quarter has been largely a continuation of the 2017 first quarter sagas where some media houses were accused of lying and carrying false news, while others were asked to retract a news article and issue an apology failure to which a suit was to be issued against them. The quarter under review also saw serious government onslaught on private and online media accusing them of encouraging sensationalism and bias reporting. What seemed to have been the main headline story was the case involving the closure of the post news paper where magistrates court had adjourned the hearing of the matter in which state Counsel Nchima Nchito was accused of personating as an advocate for post Newspapers following private prosecutor Kelvin Fube’s application to get instructions from complainant in his case. When this matter came up before the magistrate Greenwell Malumani, laywer Fube told the court that he had joined the prosecution team but that he was not ready to proceed as he needed time to study the court record as well as to talk to Abel Mboozi, the complainant in the case. This however, did not sit well with defence lawyer Musa Mwenye who objected on the grounds that Mr Fube was not properly on record because it was not clear who had instructed him and that he could therefore not apply for an adjournment.8 Another story related with the foregoing is one where the Economic and Equity Party leader Chilufya Tayali charged that the closed Post Newspaper will just be looted and the money will go into the pockets of those colluding to grab the newspaper if Zambians allowed lawyer Lewis Mosho to go on with the liquidation. Announcing the postponement of a scheduled peaceful demonstration dubbed “Give Back The Post Newspaper to the owners” Mr. Tayali said he would not give up on the quest because him and his party were certain that this case was a clear abuse of power by President Edgar Lungu and 1. The Mast, 4th April 2017 2. Chilufya Tayali The Mast, 4th April, 2017 15 | P a g e