The eagerness of civil society to work with NAMISA is also commendable. This should have a huge impact on the opening up of public media. The challenges being faced by MISA Malawi is that although the government has reaffirmed its commitment to democratic values, there seems to be no political will to open up the public media to diverse views. Last December, the former Minister of Information Kaliyoma Phumisa declared that the opposition would not be allowed to use public media. NAMISA has an uphill battle to surmount this lack of political will to open up the airwaves. There also seem to be self-censorship among employees working in public media organisations. They suppress information that would discredit or embarrass the government to keep their jobs. C4. MISA Namibia submitted recommendations for the Draft Communications Bill for Namibia. This legislation is to be amended and MISA Namibia has a special interest in the development of Community radio in terms of the Bill. Currently community radio is hardly even mentioned in the Draft Bill. The Chapter is still waiting to hear if their submissions will be adopted in the final version of the Bill. In Swaziland a Media consultant who was seconded to the Government to work closely with the committee to finalize the Draft Information Communication Policy documents worked closely with MISA Swaziland on the Broadcasting chapter of the same. It was agreed that Communication broadcasting is included as part of a massive campaign to empower the citizenry on matters of governance and accountability. Other issues MISA-Swaziland advocates for: • Licensing for the Broadcasting industry should be given over to an independent regulator. • The Government controlled SBIS and STVA should an independent Board who should be appointed in a transparent manner run ‘True Public Broadcasting entities’. • Training of journalists should become a matter of policy and the government is expected to play a pivotal role in coming out with such a policy. The fact that the Chapter is now encouraging communication has led to an increased awareness about the need to establish community based media. The Chapter is working with the Lubombo Community Radio Forum and two other prospective communities to get their broadcasting licences form the government. 25