SECTOR 2 owns three magazines (Nkwaso, The Lamp and Together), while the state has one television station (MBC Television) and two radio stations (MBC 1 and 2). There is a Competition and Fair Trading Act (1998) but there have been no known cases of this legislation being used to limit cross or multi-ownership within the media sphere. The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), the regulatory body governed by the Communications Act of 1998, does limit private broadcasters to some degree – i.e. a private broadcaster is not allowed to have both a national radio and a national TV licence, although the state is exempt from such a restriction. This appears to be more about reach and access, and is not related to issues of competition. 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: 2.3 (2010 = 3.3; 2008 = 1.7; 2006 = 2.1) 2.6 Government promotes a diverse media landscape with economically sustainable and independent media outlets. The government does not support a diverse and economically sustainable media landscape. Generally, there are no tax exemptions on the media sector, except for the 16.5 percent VAT on newspapers, which has been removed by the state. Appeals have been made to the past and present government by media owners and managers to have duties lifted on transmitters, printing presses, ink, paper, and so on, but nothing has come of these. As a result of escalating costs and the devaluation of the kwacha, newspapers have had to scale down their operations in various ways, with some tabloids reducing their page size even further. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER MALAWI 2012 31