men had a disagreement and the dispute was referred to the court. The real owner’s claim was dismissed and he lost his company. Article 58 of the organic Law establishing the HAAC, includes a clause enabling it to withdraw the formal confirmation or authorisation from any Media company which has been charged with misconduct following legal proceedings. The HAAC’s mission is also to prevent media consolidation and monopolies. This is not much of an issue, as there are no large media conglomerates in the country. The audio-visual media services specifications indicate that a minimum of 51% of the share capital must be held by nationals. There are no specific provisions relating to competition between media outlets. Media companies have limited economically viability and are extremely politicized. The Government grants the press an annual subsidy of CFA francs 100 million (approximately USD180,000). This amount is far from being adequate. In 2015, for instance, 43 media companies were eligible for the subsidy and they each received between CFA francs 400,000 and 3 million (USD 700 and 5,300). The media is a male dominated profession in terms of human resources, editorial boards and the content published by press agencies. Religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities are also very under-represented. Only publicly-owned media outlets, that are better off, make an effort to cover them. Moreover, because of the excessive attention paid to politics, economic, cultural, social and local questions are relatively neglected. Matters for investigation are even more rarely covered. Due to a lack of funds, private broadcasters find it difficult to set up a proper programme schedule. Only agencies based in Lomé make the effort. But the quality of the productions is often deplorable. There is no consistent Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) policy. However there is political will, as is shown by the creation of an e-portal for the Ministry of Economy. The State has created public Wi-Fi zones, and software development tools are tax exempt. The advertising market is very narrow in Togo. In the private sector, telecommunications companies are the main advertisers. In the public sector, the Government has a tendency to place its announcements in the news media which are not hostile to it. Togo has extensive legislation regulating audio-visual media. It should however, be supplemented by provisions better adapted to community radios. The HAAC, which is the media regulatory body for audio-visual services, is supposed to be an independent body. But in practice, it is often accused of being influenced by politics. The appointment procedure for its nine members is suspicious, as the HAAC includes many individuals belonging to political groups. However, the decisions taken by the HAAC are often considered to be lawful and legitimate, 64 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER TOGO 2017