IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE - SOUTHERN AFRICA

30 April 2004

MISA releases annual publication "So This Is Democracy?: State of media
freedom in Southern Africa"

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

(MISA/IFEX) - The following is a MISA media statement:

Release of MISA's annual publication, "So This Is Democracy?: State of media
freedom in Southern Africa"

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) will again this year be
releasing its annual publication, "So This Is Democracy?: State of media
freedom in Southern Africa" in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day on
May 3. This is the tenth consecutive year in which MISA has issued this
publication, which records incidents of media freedom violations monitored
by MISA in the previous year. The current edition therefore details media
freedom violations in 2003.

MISA issued 188 alerts in 2003 about media freedom and freedom of expression
violations in SADC countries. This is a decrease of 9,7 per cent over the
208 alerts recorded in the previous year.

The countries monitored include Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. MISA is in
the process of resuscitating its media freedom monitoring activities in
Angola.

MISA's Regional Programme Manager: Media Freedom Monitoring, Zoé Titus, says
in the publication that "although this figure (188) marks a decrease of 9,7
percent from the previous year, the nature of alerts and their bearing on
the psyche of journalists have culminated into an environment in which
journalists practice self-censorship, where media organisations are either
closed down by governments through the application of repressive legislation
or as a result of degenerating economic conditions, and where the pursuit of
independent journalism is often labelled as unpatriotic".

"In Zimbabwe, the forced state closure of the Daily News on September 12,
2003, on charges that it was publishing illegally without a state license,
was undoubtedly the worst media freedom violation recorded in 2003", she
says, adding that the application of the repressive Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act in that country has translated into Zimbabwe
accounting for 54 percent of all media freedom and freedom of expression
violations MISA recorded in 2003.

She warns, however, that it must be noted that even in those countries where
the media freedom situation has not overtly deteriorated, there remains a
need for media law reform, as the environment is still littered with legal
hurdles that stifle media freedom.

BREAKDOWN OF THE 2003 ALERTS

A breakdown of the 188 alerts issued in 2003 reveals, among others, that 33
journalists were attacked, 53 detained, 37 censored whilst 8 victories -
either through the adoption of positive legislation or where charges were
dropped against a journalist - were recorded. No journalists were killed as
a result of their work in 2003.

TRENDS DETECTED DURING 2003

The alerts for 2003 reveal the emergence of new themes of professional
importance to journalists and to MISA. These include the increase of civil
defamation cases against the media and concerns about the high financial
penalties being awarded to successful litigants, the emergence of more
independent media councils (voluntary media complaints bodies) or attempts
to do so, the establishment of national editors' forums, increasing concerns
about the wages and working conditions of journalists, the struggle for the
appointment of statutory but independent broadcasting authorities,
developments around the introduction of Access to Information legislation,
and the rise of media-civil society coalitions (including associations of
journalists in the state owned media) for media freedom advocacy and legal
reform purposes. All of these issues have a direct bearing on media freedom
and the quality of journalism in the SADC region.

NEW FEATURE

A new feature of the alerts is a gender component in terms of which media
violations are broken down to show how many men and women were affected by
violations of their media rights. In 2003, 24 female and 115 male
practitioners were affected.

HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY

Hard copies of the publication may be ordered from MISA's Regional
Secretariat. Contact Eric Libongani at [email protected] for details. The
publication may also be downloaded from MISA's website at
http://www.misa.org

Luckson Chipare
Regional Director
Media Institute of Southern Africa

For further information, contact Regional Director Luckson Chipare, Zoe
Titus or Regional Information Coordinator Kaitira Kandjii, MISA, Street
Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street, Mailing Address; Private Bag 13386
Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232975, fax: +264 61 248016, e-mail:
[email protected], [email protected] or [email protected], Internet:
http://www.misa.org/

The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility
of MISA. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
MISA.
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