Previous winners of the MISA Press Freedom Award n 1993 - Onesimo Makani Kabweza The late Onesimo Makani Kabweza, as editor of Moto in Zimbabwe, was one of the first Zimbabwean journalists to break the “culture of silence” which followed the country’s independence in 1980. Onesimo dared to take a critical stand against the new Zimbabwean government under Robert Mugabe at a time when others were too scared to criticise or speak out against any government wrongdoing. He was very enthusiastic about the need for southern African media workers to unify and thus shared the dreams and aspirations of MISA. At the time of his death in 1993, Onesimo was on his way back from a trip to Harare on MISA business. n 1994 - Basildon Peta By the time the young Basildon Peta was awarded MISA’s Press Freedom Award, he had already come up against the full might of the Zimbabwean police. The senior reporter at the Daily Gazette, Basildon was incarcerated in 1994 for a week, enduring long sessions of interrogation by the police, who failed to break his determination to stand by the truth. Basildon was also not cowered into silence and he went on to expose further incidents of corruption and abuse of power in government. n 1995 - Fred M’membe Fred M’membe, probably one of the most persecuted journalists in his country and the rest of the region, is a qualified accountant who, along with colleagues John Mukela, Masautso Phiri and Mike Hall, founded The Post newspaper in Zambia in 1991. Since its founding as a weekly paper and its swift progress to a daily paper, The Post under the helm of Fred, tirelessly kept a watch on the government, exposing numerous incidents of corruption, illegal activities, bad governance, human rights abuses and lack of respect for the rule of law. In the process, and despite enormous efforts on the part of the government to harass The Post and Fred in particular, Fred has distinguished himself as a consistent and fearless journalist, committed to the ideals of media freedom. n 1996 - Allister Sparks Allister Haddon Sparks has played a phenomenal role in the media in South Africa. Starting out as a reporter on the Queenstown Daily Representative in 1951, Allister rose to become a sub-editor under the renowned Donald Woods at the East London Daily Dispatch, the editor of the Sunday Express, and then the editor of the great Rand Daily Mail. It was during his tenure at the Rand Daily Mail in the late 1970’s that Allister distinguished himself as a journalist of great valour and strength, willing to stick his neck out for a story even though it might have reached into the deep echelons of government. In 1992, a decade after being dismissed from the Rand Daily Mail, Allister was instrumental in setting up the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ), based in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the time of receiving the MISA Press Freedom Award, Allister was serving on the Board of the South African n 1997 - Gwen Lister Gwen Lister, as editor of The Namibian , almost single-handedly kept up the mantle of press freedom in Namibia, both before and after independence. Starting out as a journalist at the Windhoek Advertiser in 1975, she eventually went on to establish The Namibian , which hit the streets for the first time in August 1985. From the outset, The Namibian was the only newspaper in Namibia that was brave enough to expose ongoing atrocities and human rights abuses being committed by the South African occupation forces. Gwen’s determination to uncover and report the truth never wavered, despite concerted attempts to harass and intimidate her and the rest So This Is Democracy? 2007 -283- Media Institute of Southern Africa