guarantees on the right to free expression and information these rights are abrogated by the existence of laws such as Newspapers and Broadcasting Acts which do not support access to information, freedom of expression and are unfriendly to the media. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 2.2. 3, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2 2.4 (2006= 2.8) The right to freedom of expression is practised and citizens, including journalists, are asserting their rights without fear. ANALYSIS: There was general consensus that free expression of opinion especially among the citizens is still low. Although people do discuss a lot of issues in informal settings such as in dalalas2, it is still difficult to do so in open forums without fear of repercussions. However, there was also consensus that perhaps due to the tolerance of the current Government, a lot is now being discussed freely than ever before. It was also felt that the media was in the forefront in pushing the frontiers of freedom of expression and of the press by being very bold and courageous in exposing scandals, some involving very senior Government officials including Ministers who have been forced to resign as a result of the exposés. It was also agreed that even though courage for telling the truth is still lacking among journalists, the journalism profession is gaining credibility and respect among the public. However, the panellists were of the view that in the media, freedom of expression is also hampered by interference in the editorial independence by media owners or publishers in both private and public media. It was also felt that at times journalists working for the public (state) media might be better placed as the editorial policy is quite clear and the security of employment is better than in the private media, where an editor or journalists can be summarily dismissed if the owner is displeased with what is published or aired. The panelists also noted that programmes such as the public expenditure tracking is capacitating the citizens to hold their leaders accountable. Journalists have also benefitted in capacity building of public expenditure tracking and so far about 200 journalists have received training. This programme is under the US sponsored Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) which seeks to empower the citizens to make their leaders in the local government accountable on how the financial resources have been utilized according to the citizens interest. It was also felt that hostile laws; ownership patterns which is divided between those who want to be independent and those who want to support the government ; and professional incompetence resulting in many libel cases in courts, are all contributing factors to limiting freedom of expression. SCORES: Individual scores: Average score: 2 3, 1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 2 2.8 (2006= 2.1) Dala Dalas – public buses So This Is Democracy? 2008 -227- Media Institute of Southern Africa