=DPELD Additionally, the government began the process to enact the ATI Bill in earnest in the second quarter of the year by appointing a Taskforce on ATI to redraft the ATI Bill and undertake sensitisation campaign. This goodwill continued to be manifest through the approval of over seven full broadcast and one television licences. Furthermore, eight radio and three television construction permits were issued in May. However, not all was rosy as the second and third quarters saw an increase in media freedom violations that included verbal abuses, physical attacks, un-lawful detentions, censorship, reduction of radius for UNZA Radio, threats of closure of online media such as the Zambian Watchdog, and the dismissal of two journalists. 0HGLD/DZDQG3ROLF\5HIRUPV IBA Act The ray of hope towards the IBA becoming operational in 2012 was bright at the beginning of the year but dwindled at its close. However, government undertook three key activities of developing and approving the IBA structure, allocating offices to the IBA and commencing efforts to appoint a Director General (DG). It is vital to state that since the law was enacted in 2002, this attempt was the first aimed at making the Act operational. In contrast, the previous government only ended at enacting the law and later amending it after eight years of non-implementation. The amendment resulted in the removal of the appoint- 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\" ments committee, which was supposed to select and recommend names to the Minister of Information to sit on the IBA board. However, the 2010 IBA Act has left the selection of IBA Board members in the Information Minister’s hands, giving him a firm grip on the broadcast sector. MISA Zambia and other stakeholders have recommended that the appointments committee be reinstated into the IBA Act if public service broadcasting and independent broadcast regulation are to be attained. It further expressed concern that the IBA Director General (DG) was being appointed before the board was put in place. According to the IBA Act, the board is supposed to appoint the DG of the IBA. The objective of the IBA was to remove government control over the broadcast sector in Zambia and usher in public broadcasting from the current state-owned media, which seems to be at the service of the party in power at the expense of all other stakeholders in the country. Several research reports indicate biasness of such media towards government. ATI Bill This Bill has been pending enactment since 2002 when it was withdrawn from Parliament. The PF government first promised to enact the Bill when it assumed office in November 2011, indicating that the Bill would be law in six months time. This meant that the Bill would have been an Act in May 2012. However, with the transfer of Honourable Lubinda from the Ministry of formation, the process seemed to have