3. BROADCASTING AND ICTs The Broadcasting and ICTs Programme continued to lobby for the liberalization of the airwaves, enactment of laws and policies that enable such liberalization and diversity, as well as unhindered access and dissemination of information through broadcasting and ICTs An overview of the current broadcasting landscape in Southern Africa shows that radio remains a powerful and most accessible medium and there has been a significant growth in the private commercial radio sector. However this has not been matched by growth in the other broadcasting sectors namely community radio and public broadcasting. Governments continue to maintain a tight grip on the broadcasting landscape with state radio and television dominating in ten out of the eleven countries that MISA operates in. This continues to be a major challenge in the regional broadcasting sector. Those who can afford it however get an alternative voice from satellite and pay television channels that have seen some growth. ICTs still remain out of the reach for most people especially internet access. Only a few countries in the region have tele-centres. Mobile cellular telephony has however seen remarkable growth and provides the greatest opportunity for users to take advantage of converged technologies with some broadcasters beginning to stream their content on cellular phones. However this poses a new problem of how to regulate such. Broadcasters continue to face harassment from authorities. MISA continued to record violations pertaining to the broadcasting sector in the countries it operates in. However the situation is not entirely hopeless, progress has been made in certain areas. Opportunity for broadcasting reform is seen in the legal, policy and regulatory frameworks already in place in some countries. The challenge is to bring them in line with international, continental and regional benchmarks. 3.1 REGIONAL ACTIVITIES 3.1.1 Campaign for transformation of state broadcasters In the year under review MISA continued its campaign of transforming state broadcasters in the region into public service broadcasters. National stakeholders conferences meant to initiate targeted national campaigns on public service broadcasting were held in Botswana and Zambia. The conferences brought together policy makers and stakeholders including government, state broadcasters, members of parliament, regulators, non-governmental organizations, electronic and print media, political parties and academics. Participants made concrete resolutions which will form the basis of targeted national campaigns on public service broadcasting. The Zambian conference was held on August 28 a few weeks before the country’s general election and managed to put the issue of broadcasting reform in the national spotlight and elicit media coverage in the run-up to the elections. The Botswana conference was held on March 29. It came against the backdrop of Parliament having sent the draft broadcasting policy back to the drawing board. 3.1.2 Research MISA conducted studies on the state broadcasting sector in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. One of the striking findings of the studies was the lack of knowledge about public service broadcasting which is mostly taken to be synonymous with state broadcasting. That is a challenge for MISA to mount public awareness campaigns. The studies also confirmed that state broadcasters wield the biggest power in these countries with their resources and technical reach thereby have the biggest potential to inform or misinform. In this regard MISA has vigorously campaigned for the transformation of state broadcasters into public service broadcasters. 24 Annual Report 2006