(Credit: Zambia Daily Mail, screenshot)

Zambia got its first Media Council July 6, the Zambia Daily Mail reported.

The council will “conciliate, mediate and arbitrate” complaints about media ethics, and took “three years of planning and negotiations with government” to get off the ground, according to the Daily Mail.

We wrote earlier this year when Zambia’s president Michael Sata filed a lawsuit against Zambia’s Daily Nation and a radio station over its reporting critical of him.  Sata also wanted the Daily Nation to retract its May 16 article that included quotes claiming he gave a pricy contract to a friend.