Introduction The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Southern African Media Project took the initiative in April 2005 to start the African Media Barometer (AMB). The AMB is an assessment exercise done by Africans of their local media environment according to homegrown criteria. The project is the most comprehensive description and measurement system for national media environments on the African continent. The benchmarks are to a large extent taken from the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights’ (ACHPR) “Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa”, adopted in 2002. This declaration was largely inspired by the groundbreaking conferences in Windhoek, Namibia, on the “Independence of the Media” (1991) and the “African Charter on Broadcasting (2001). By the end of 2006, MISA and FES together implemented the AMB in 11 countries in southern Africa. FES further implemented the AMB in another 10 sub-Saharan countries. In 2007 those countries which started the exercise in 2005 were revisited, providing for the first time comparable data to measure developments in a country over a two-year period. Methodology: A panel of experts is formed in each country and includes representatives of media and civil society at large in equal numbers. They serve as panel members in their personal capacities, not as representatives of their respective organisations. Effort is made to ensure gender equity and geographical representation. The panel consists at most of ten members who will meet biannually for two-day retreats. During this time the panelists, through qualitative discussion, assess their local media environment according to predetermined indicators and as such determine (quantitative) scores for each indicator. A trained, independent consultant moderates the meetings to ensure comparable results. The resulting reports are made public. Scoring system: Panel members are asked to allocate their individual scores to the respective indicators after the qualitative discussion in an anonymous vote according to the following scale; 1 Country does not meet indicator. 2 Country minimally meets aspects of the indicator. 3 Country meets many aspects of indicator but progress may be too recent to judge. 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator and has been doing so over time. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -155- Media Institute of Southern Africa