61 SOUTHERN AFRICA PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2019-2020 one of the station’s programmes. (137) The law on defamation of the president is deemed to be inimical to freedom of expression as it places arbitrary discretion on law enforcement agencies to determine what should constitute defamatory matter or what not. The law is further ambiguous as it places a criminal caveat on comments, whether negative or positive. On 20 December 2018, the Supreme Court of Zambia jailed Rainbow news editor Derrick Sinjela for 18 months for contempt. The Court sentenced Sinjela for his remarks in an article titled “Zambian supreme court verdict in the Savenda and Stanbic case questionable.” (138) Sinjela claimed the judges were corrupt, suggesting among other things that they had received bribes from Stanbic to reverse a lower court ruling. In the initial ruling, the High Court found that the bank had wrongly referred Savenda for defaulting on a bank loan. Observers described Sinjela’s jailing as an indictment of the government, lamenting that it was shameful for the government to silence citizens using the courts. Sinjela was released on 12 November 2019 after 327 days in detention. (139) MEDIA AND GENDER The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS) in the first quarter of 2020, instructed public media institutions to stop featuring statements and appearances on media programmes by Zambian ambassadors and high commissioners, except with prior clearance from the Foreign Affairs ministry. This came against the backdrop of a litany of statements from press secretaries from Zambian missions abroad. It is for this reason that civil society institutions like MISA Zambia have been advocating for independence of public institutions, to avoid situations where the government is seen to have undue influence on their operations. CENSORSHIP There has been a reduction of female journalists in various newsrooms in Zambia, especially in community media. Some newsrooms do not even have female journalists; while many have left to join other professions. Poor salaries and rare promotions for female journalists are some of the main factors why women journalists leave newsrooms. The patriarchal culture of masculine domination and attitudes and opinions on women in newsrooms are still lagging behind the realities