STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBA 3.0 Findings 3.1. Media Environment during the 2nd quarter 2017 The second quarter of 2017 saw the continued onslaught on media institutions and press freedom and freedom of expression generally by the state and its agents. In the same quarter, media faced a flurry of legal suits and counter suits that were clearly adding to the many pressures that they have already been facing since 2016. One unique case was one where the Daily Nation Newspaper threatened to sue The Mast Newspaper, a case highlighted elsewhere in the document, suffice to say this kind of machinations by one media organisation against another does not augur well for the media industry. The media was yet again embroiled in another battle, this time where State Counsel Nchima Nchito had been dragged to court for impersonation where he is alleged to have presented himself as advocate for the liquidated Post Newspaper.1 This was during the legal battles when the then Post Newspapers had tried, without success to stop the liquidation by liquidator Lewis Mosho. In time, the entire truth will come out and the full extent of the truthfulness, and benefits or losses shall be known to all. Another case is one involving former Post Newspaper owner’s wife Mutinta Mazoka who had been sued and charged with contempt of court. Facts are that, “she, with intent to disrespect the law and order of the court, tore a search warrant, which was duly authorised in the name of the President of the republic of Zambia.” Such cases, with due respect to the judicial process, are clearly not well intentioned since the genesis of this problem is problematic in itself. This emanates from the issues of 2015 and 2016 when the Post Newspaper was specially targeted by the state, under pretext of tax related matters. It has been widely known in public domain that the tax issues relating to the Post Newspapers were never really about tax but were used to get at the newspaper organisation for its critical tone in covering the party in power. This history led to 1 The Mast Newspaper, 4th April 2017 8|Page