SECTOR 3 “The ZNBC is failing Zambia. Political interference restricts it in many ways. ZNBC staff don’t want to offend the powers that be, so they don’t feel they can think out of the box.” Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 2.5 (2005 = 3.1; 2007 = 1.8; 2009 = 3.2) 3.12 Community broadcasting enjoys special promotion given its potential to broaden access by communities to the airwaves. The IBA Act of 2002 supports a three-tier system of broadcasting: public, private and community. However, as this act is not operational, as there is no IBA board, these three types of broadcasting in Zambia exist in a legislative vacuum, with the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services issuing licences and not an independent body, such as the IBA. While government allows community broadcasters to operate in Zambia, it does not fund such initiatives, or provide training, but the state does keep them under its control and interferes with programming seen to be contrary to the state’s agenda. “Community broadcasting has been allowed by government to mushroom in Zambia. But such stations are constantly under threat, to the degree that many of them behave almost like the ZNBC and present the government in a positive light, so as not to get on the wrong side of powers that be.” Government has been known to issue directives to community radio stations about restricting their news broadcasts to five or seven minutes only, “because they are not national broadcasters”. State officials have also issued directives to community broadcasters not to have political phone-in programmes in the run-up to national elections. (See indicator 1.2 about Radio Lyambai being forcibly closed down by police as it was perceived to be anti-government.) 52 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2011