T he theme for this year’s report is ‘photojournalists under fire’, as one of the main targets for attacks in 2014 were photojournalists and other media workers using cameras to expose the truth. Attacks included assaults, detention, confiscating equipment, deleting photos and in the most extreme case, fatally shooting a reporter. JOURNALIST SAFETY The decline in journalist safety documented in the 2013 edition of So This Is Democracy?, sadly continued in 2014. In general, perpetrators were governments and authorities but in some cases even private citizens attacked media workers. As noted, photojournalists and other media workers trying to capture events on camera and in video were particularly targeted in 2014. In many cases, photojournalists were attacked while covering demonstrations. A picture tells a thousand words and in the current age of technology, pictures can be distributed around the world in just moments. This year, oppressive governments strove to control and stop the spread of information and truth through images. The most shocking attack of 2014 resulted in death. On 13 January 2014, police shot dead freelance journalist, Michael Tsele, in the North West of South Africa, where he was covering a local protest against the community’s lack of water and sanitation services. While the official investigation concluded Tshele was likely caught in the crossfire between protestors and police, community mem- bers say police shot Tshele because he was taking photographs. On November 23, Zambian youth activist Laurinda Gouveia endured two hours of brutal attack at the hands of police and state security. The attack took place in a school, where she was arrested for taking photos of police mistreating two youth demonstrators at Independence Square in Luanda. In Zimbabwe, on 18 August 2014, police assualted Anjela Jimu, a photographer with the Zimbabwe Mail, while covering a demonstration in Harare by opposition MDC-T youths. On 28 May 2014, police briefly arrested Rádio Despertar journalist Adérito Pascual at a police station in Viana, Angola when he asked for an official statement for a live broadcast on a violent operation to remove street traders. Police seized his phone, recorder and identification and government agents forced him to delete his videos. He was released after two hours and his equipment returned. These are just a few examples of the many violations of media freedom that occurred in 2014 against media workers trying to document stories and human rights abuses on video or in pictures. In previous editions of So This Is Democracy?, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has lamented the downward spiral of media freedom in Tanzania and in 2014, we continued to see reports of police brutality against media workers in that country. However, a beacon of hope was offered when on 17 September 2014, Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania Dr Gharib Mohammed Bilal stood before an audience of media houses, law, defense and security organs declaring the police force So This is Democracy? 2014 11