out Radio Mozambique particularly for its morning chat show Café de Manha, saying the radio’s live broadcasts, afforded representatives of the competing political parties an opportunity to present their manifestos and to dialogued with the electorate through phone calls, e-mail and text messages. reported in the private broadcast media as GABZ FM succumbed to pressure from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party and banned the airing of political programmes. The 2009 elections also highlighted the lack of independence and political interference in broadcasting regulators in the region. In Botswana, for example, the National Broadcasting Board was forced to withdraw an Elections Code of Conduct for Broadcasters because the Minister of Communications did not give the code legal force. The Ministry said the code was not enforced only after the regulator issued penalties against state controlled broadcasters for violating the code. In Namibia, a staunch ruling party activist was appointed to the Board of the Namibia Communications Commission in violation of the law governing the regulator. Broadcasting: Status, Legislative and Policy Environment Community broadcasters across the region continued to grapple with lack of financial sustainability. In one embodiment, Cape Town Community Television stopped broadcasting for ten days in October as it dealt with financial issues. Furthermore at least five countries in the region have still not opened up the airwaves to community broadcasters. On public broadcasting, no positives were recorded as national broadcasters remained firmly under state control. However, there were some positives in the broadcast coverage of the 2009 elections. MISA-Mozambique praised the Mozambican media for impartiality and professional coverage of the election campaign. A statement issued by the chapter singled 46 In South Africa, once regarded as the beacon of public broadcasting in the region, the South African Broadcasting Corporation remained in crisis for the third straight year. Among other things, there were mass resignations of the board, the CEO, head of news, reporters and other personnel were fired or left amid acrimony; some documentaries were canned and the broadcaster had to be bailed out financially by government. A new board has since been appointed and a new CEO is at the helm but the SABC is still far from being back in shape. In Namibia, Parliament passed the Communications Bill without amendment, ignoring input from the public, the media and civil society after inviting public submissions. The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation also axed some live phone in programmes amid a public outcry. In Zimbabwe, where the government still monopolises broadcasting, the state broadcaster instituted a ban on opposition MDC Ministers after the MDC boycotted the coalition government. Botswana saw the tightening of the noose on the state broadcasting media as they were moved from the Ministry of Communications to the Office of the President. Private radio stations were not spared as in Malawi Joy Radio continued to incur a lot of harassment from the government-controlled regulator, Malawi Communications Commission, (MACRA). The station saw several closures and seizure of equipment and prosecution of its employees. The drama ended in January 2010 when the High Court ruled that the decision by MACRA to revoke the station’s license was unreasonable and unconstitutional, effectively ending all cases in which MACRA had been challenging Joy Radio. In a positive development, the ban on the BBC and CNN was revoked in Zimbabwe in 2009. 47