CHAPTER 4: AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER THEMATIC TRENDS: 2011-2021 The 2018 AMB for Mauritius notes that “private broadcasting has not prospered and since 2002, the country only has three private radio stations, has no community radio stations and no private TV channels”. It further notes that “broadcasting is dominated by the state-owned Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), which runs six radio stations and is the only national TV broadcaster”. The national broadcaster “is not seen as an independent body and its board members are considered to be sympathetic to whichever government is in power”. Other countries in which this trend is manifested include the DRC, Nigeria, Eswatini, Guinea, Tanzania, Mali, Namibia, Zambia, and Gabon. It is also evident that in countries where the government controls the broadcasting sector, or at least the state/public broadcaster, the latter almost always functions with limited editorial independence. Nonetheless, African a several countries flourishing sub-Saharan seem 3-tier to have broadcasting system (public/state, commercial and community broadcasting), with some registering more than a hundred radio "The AMBs also show that ... governments’ desire to retain control or influence over electronic media becomes rather more assertive..." and television broadcasting services. South Africa and Senegal are good examples of this. The AMBs also show that, with media convergence becoming the norm of most contemporary news media, governments’ desire to retain control or influence over electronic media has increased, as indicated by proposed legislative instruments designed to respond to the growth and prevalence of digital media in Africa. For instance, the Namibian government promulgated the Communications Act of 2009 and, at the time of the 2015 AMB, was working on the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Crime Bill (partly enacted in 2019 as the Electronic Transactions Act 4 of 2019) as well as the Film Bill, all of which can potentially be used to restrict freedom of expression. In addition, the 2021 AMB for Zambia refers to the country’s enactment of “a controversial digital security law, the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act of 2021, ostensibly to promote the ‘responsible use of social media platforms'”. However, the AMBs show that most African governments did not adequately and timeously respond to the evolving digital media ecology, at least at the level of regulation. Countries that have made inroads in this regard show a degree of paranoia 15 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER 11 YEARS IN REVIEW