is linked with the Nigerian station of the same name. In 2007, a new pay-per-view TV service was introduced by GTV as part of a pan-African television service in addition to the then nine-year-old sub-Saharan Digital Satellite Television service (DStv) from the South African company Multichoice. GTV subsequently went out of business, leaving DStv as the only provider of pay-per-view television in the country. The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) was created by the colonial government in 1934 making it the earliest English language radio broadcaster service in West Africa. The service began broadcasting television in 1963, with coverage extended to all the districts in the country in 1978. The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL) ran one of the most popular stations in the country, broadcasting programs in a range of languages. The UN mission was restructured in 2008 and it was decided that UN Radio would merge with SLBS to form the new Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). This merger took place in April 2010 after the necessary legislation was enacted. SLBC transmits radio on FM and has two television services, one of which is uplinked by satellite for international consumption. The SLBC is operated by an Independent Media Commission (IMC), under the supervision of the Sierra Leone Ministry of Information and Communications. FM relays of the BBC World Service, Radio France Internationale and Voice of America are also broadcast. The All People’s Congress (APC) and opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) radio stations that were shut down in the wake of the 2009 riots remain closed. Challenges facing broadcasters include unreliable power supplies, poor funding and low advertising revenues. Media rights monitors say high-level corruption is a taboo topic, with officials using libel laws to target errant journalists. Telephones Calling code: +232 International call prefix: 00 Main lines: 18,000 lines in use (2012); 14,000 lines in use (2009) Mobile cellular: 2.2 million lines (2012); 2 million lines (2009) Telephone system: marginal telephone service with poor infrastructure; the national microwave radio relay trunk system connects Freetown to Bo and Kenema; while mobile-cellular service is growing rapidly from a small base, service area coverage remains limited (2009). Satellite earth stations: 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2009). Communications cables: the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) Submarine communications cable that runs along the west coast of Africa and on to Portugal and France has a landing point in Freetown. Internet Top-level