Regional overview and other security organs need to work out their differences with the media and stop treating journalists as enemies. Unfortunately, a slew of police attacks against media workers in Tanzania followed the announcement. In fact the very next day, police attacked journalists attempting to cover a story involving the Chairman of Tanzania’s main opposition party, who had been summoned to the police headquarters in Dar es Salaam. Josephat Isango, a journalist with the local private daily newspaper Tanzania Daima; Yusuf Badi, a photographer with state owned newspaper, The Daily News; and journalist Shamimu Ausi of the local weekly paper Hoja, all sustained serious injuries. FREE EXPRESSION AND THE LAW When it comes to the legal environment and its impact on media freedom in southern Africa, 2014 was a rollercoaster of highs and lows as we experienced a number of victories for free expression, marred by serious setbacks. One of the most shocking setbacks for free expression in southern Africa in 2014 took place in Swaziland – the arrest and sentencing of Bheki Makhubu and Thulani Maseko, editor and columnist respectively of the independent Swazi news magazine, The Nation. Makhubu and Maseko, a human rights lawyer in Swaziland, were arrested and detained on the instructions of Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi after they wrote and published two articles in The Nation’s February and March 2014 editions, criticising Ramodibedi for denying a suspect legal representation and calling on the judiciary to uphold freedom of expression and the rule of law. Ultimately, the presiding Judge, Mpen- 12 So This is Democracy? 2014 dulo Simelane, found Makhubu and Maseko guilty as charged and his judgement and sentencing on 17 July 2014 sent shockwaves amongst Swaziland’s media fraternity and free expression activists around the world. Simelane levied a hefty fine of US$10,000 on both the Swaziland Independent Publishers and The Nation. Media freedom needs to be protected in constitutions, to hold governments accountable and restrictive press laws that are not compatible with the constitutional provisions can be challenged. However, there were also victories to be celebrated in 2014 – most notably improvements in the legal landscape for access to information and the use of defamation laws against media workers in the region. Perhaps the most significant and farreaching victory, was the December ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in the case of Konaté v Burkina Faso. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled criminal defamation laws cannot include