be included in that public television station’s programming, although in practice there is no mechanism for efective control of compliance with these parameters. Panellists felt that the absence of a legal obligation to include local content in broadcasting, whether public or private/commercial, impedes the development of a local production industry that could help promote the country’s substantial and varied artistic and cultural potential. Concerns persist on the issue of the public nature of public broadcasting bodies. he Boards of Directors of Rádio Moçambique and Televisão de Moçambique are appointed exclusively by the government. he appointment methods (usually by the Prime Minister with Council of Ministers approval) are the same as those used for appointments to the Board of Directors of other public companies. So the composition of the boards of public broadcasting companies is based on Law 17/91 (Law on Public Companies) wherein Article 10 states that directors of public companies are appointed and removed by the respective ministry, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors (CBD) is appointed by the Council of Ministers. he way these bodies are constituted is at odds with paragraph 5 of Article 48 of the Constitution of the Republic, which establishes the independence of public sector media. For this reason they are not accountable to the public but to the government. Similarly, the inancing of the public broadcasters is at the discretion of the Minister of Finance, as they do not have their own budgets approved by Parliament. Inadequate funding for public broadcasting produces a situation where both Rádio Moçambique and Televisão de Moçambique have to resort to advertising to cover their budget deicits, in competition with private stations that do not beneit from State funds. When public broadcasting resorts to commercial advertising, this could seriously compromise its independence by subjecting it to impositions of a commercial nature. Future legislation on the broadcasting sector must take the recommendation contained in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa (2002) of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights into account. Among others, this declaration recommends that: 1. 2. Public broadcasers should be governed by a board which is protected against interference, particularly of a political or economic nature; and Public broadcasters should be adequately funded in a manner that protects them from arbitary interference with their budgets. he issue of technological migration continues to be a serious concern as the process appears to be falling behind in Mozambique. Moreover, despite the existence of a commission coordinated by the National Communications Institute (INCM) to conduct the process, there is still no speciic government policy on 74 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER MOZAMBIQUE 2011