STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT 2021 66 The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights stressed in its Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa that “states shall review all criminal restrictions on content to ensure that they serve a legitimate interest in a democratic society”. (18) In 2018, the Constitutional Court of Lesotho found that criminalising defamation has a “chilling effect” on journalistic freedom of expression, resulting in self-censorship by journalists and a less informed public. (19) Citizens need MIL education, as such laws are counterproductive to realising the right to freedom of expression. Infodemic is a term coined by the World Health Organisation, describing the distribution of too much information, including false or misleading content, in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak. (20) The overwhelming amount of information (a large portion being false) that users received regarding the Covid-19 pandemic has led to confusion, polarisation, risktaking behaviour, and loss of confidence in decision-making authorities. Some social media platforms have fact checkers in place to verify information, and then limit its spread or remove the post completely, leaving some users to believe it is censoring information, and promoting their agenda in lieu of providing independent information for users to evaluate, and use, or disregard. This is where MIL education will again be a great asset to users to discern what is true and what is not. The examples demonstrate how African states below Southern battled disinformation during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. To curb the spread of false information that affects people’s lives, a holistic approach from several stakeholders is needed, and although certain laws and other interventions are helpful it might not be sustainable. Some laws, however, are not suitable as demonstrated below. A sustained and structure approach is for the consumer and creators of information to be empowered to identify information disorder and deal with it accordingly. In December 2020, Angola, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), in partnership with the Ministry of Health, set up the COVID-19 Alliance, a system to fight potentially harmful information shared mostly online. (21) The alliance received about 100 calls per day from people seeking to clarify rumours or to access facts about the disease or preventative measures. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the WHO employed the services of influencers on social media sites such as YouTube and Instagram to help spread factual messages about COVID-19. (22) They, furthermore, commissioned social media sites to filter out false information, while their communications department addressed myths and provided factual content. In 2020, several legal policies came into force in SADC member states like Botswana, Eswatini, Zambia, South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho to effect lockdowns. These policies included Special Emergency Powers, Disaster Management Acts, and Declarations of State of Emergencies. The policies severely affected free speech — not only for journalists, but for citizens as well. In some countries, people were arrested for posting content on social media from sources outside of government or for refusing to broadcast their governments’ COVID-19 messages for free. Generally, some journalists viewed it as an attack on their freedom of speech. (23) In Namibia, the creation and spread of fake news regarding COVID-19 was criminalised too, and it was reported that between mid-April 2020 and mid-September 2020, 164 people were arrested and charged with spreading COVID19-related falsehoods. Fifty-four people were charged with publishing a “false or misleading statement about measures to combat, prevent and suppress COVID-19”, while 110 people were arrested for publishing “a false or misleading statement about the COVID-19 status of any person”. After September 2020, the clause was moved to the Public and Environmental Health Act of 2015 and only included a fine of up to N$100,000 (about U$6,500). (24) Malinformation includes private information that is made public, harassment, and hate speech. The spreading of this type of information can be alleviated through MIL education. It infringes upon a person’s right to privacy and the right to be free from discrimination and violence. One such recent and notorious example is that of Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters, who published the personal contact details of a