Many stakeholders have questioned the government’s emphasis on the use of Kiswahili in community broadcasting instead of local languages. The government’s stance is that Kiswahili promotes national unity. This is a challenge that MISA Tanzania continuously addresses, as community radios should be broadcast in local languages. During the reporting period, the government sought to support rural and under-served communities to access information through the Universal Communications Access Fund that was established in 2006. The fund would be used to support initiatives for the establishment of Internet and telecommunication centres, and subsidise telephone service providers. It is anticipated that the fund will eventually support the establishment of community media. There has also been an increase in the media coverage on ICT issues. The chapter participated in various forums where provisions of the African Charter on Broadcasting were addressed. One such forum was the annual stakeholders’ consultative meeting organised by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority in December 2006 at Bagamoyo. Participants emphasised the issue of media diversity and pluralism, and noted that media crossownership hindered the diversity of media in the country. An emerging trend involves ordinary investors transferring media ownership to politicians and is yet another threat to media pluralism and diversity. The government, the majority owner and regulator of both electronic and print media, is another major threat to diversity. In February 2007, MISA Tanzania organised a workshop on transforming state-owned media into public service broadcasters. Following this initiative the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority developed a draft charter for the operations of the Tanzania Broadcasting Services. Zambia From April 2006, the major activity for MISA Zambia involved monitoring the broadcast media environment as the country drew closer to the September general elections. Most other activities planned for under the programme could not be undertaken since they all hinged on the disposal of the case between the media and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services and the Attorney General. This hearing was scheduled for September 19, 2006 in view of contempt possibilities. However, on March 15, 2007 this long awaited case came to an end when the Supreme Court finally upset an earlier ruling by the Lusaka High Court that quashed the decision of the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services to veto the names of board members nominated to sit of both the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) and Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) boards. In view of this, a stakeholders’ seminar was held on March 24, 2007 with five other media associations to determine the way forward. In July 2006, MISA Zambia commissioned a needs survey on the transformation of ZNBC into a public service broadcaster. The study involved an analysis of past and current national campaigns by the Zambian chapter on transforming state broadcasting to public broadcasting – including an assessment on the degree to which campaign material had succeeded or not, as well as an investigation into knowledge about public versus state broadcasting The idea was to prepare baseline information for future campaigns. The study used in-depth interviews and content analysis. In relation to the above, MISA Zambia held a national stakeholders’ conference in August 2006 to explore the possibility of transforming the ZNBC into a public service broadcaster, especially within the context of the general elections. 34 Annual Report 2007