Concerns were also raised about why some major media organisations were not part of the voluntary Media Ethics Council of Zambia (MECOZ). MECOZ came under fire and was accused of lacking teeth to punish erring media organisations. This made the calls for self-regulation even stronger because the Zambian media seemed divided on the matter. Therefore, MISA Zambia and other media associations like the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA), Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ), the Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA), Press Freedom Committee of The Post and MECOZ joined hands to prevent the state from establishing a regulatory body for the media. They outlined a number of activities that culminated in a meeting with the newly appointed minister who advised the media to unite and address the issue of an all inclusive and effective voluntary media ethics regulatory body. During the year under review the media bodies exhibited great unity of purpose and, despite the increase in number of violations and calls for statutory regulation, the media-government relationship was relatively good as government was willing to engage in dialogue on several concerns raised by the media. Broadcasting growth While the broadcasting sector recorded growth in terms of a new television station, Central Broadcasting Corporation, and plans to establish new community radio stations, there were no tangible results in terms of implementation of the IBA and ZNBC Acts. The television licence fee has continued to be the only aspect that is being implemented, while the Ministry of Information has continued to regulate the sector illegally. Because the IBA was not implemented, community radio stations suffered from government interference during the election period. The Ministry of Information on two notable occasions issued instructions to radio stations to stop, especially, live political phone-in programmes and interviews on more than one instance. A case in point was when Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Emmanuel Nyirenda, on September 12 instructed all broadcasters, both commercial and community, to desist from live phone-in broadcast programmes that involve members of the public, saying that some radio stations had political programmes which provided unbalanced and, in some cases, unfair coverage to political parties during election campaigns. Another notable incident was on October 20 when James Kapita, provincial chairperson of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), instructed Solwezi FCC radio station programmes manager to stop running political adverts for opposition parties and threatened to revoke its license once the ruling party won the presidential by-elections. In addition to the threats one radio station was gutted by fire and its studio and library material were destroyed. While the community and private radio stations received threats or suggestions for live programmes to be stopped, ZNBC was faced with continued criticism in the way it was covering the participating political parties in the presidential by-election. For instance, on September 25, an opposition party, the Patriotic Front (PF), threatened to commence legal proceedings against ZNBC if it did not cover PF’s campaign activities in a fair and professional manner. The private broadcast houses have generally done well in terms of accessing the voices of opposition political parties and civil society. But, because of these anti-government voices on these stations, they have regularly come under fire from government, which targets them with a view to silence such views. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -113- Media Institute of Southern Africa