many governments is unhelpful and the attendant control of state-run broadcasting entities and making them subservient to ruling party interests is a fundamental abuse of power that must always be challenged. MISA continues to base its advocacy on the African charter on Broadcasting and calls on SADC governments to critically reflect on the recommendations of the charter in order to provide more useful and much-needed broadcasting services in their countries. Attempts to restrict freedom of expression in cyberspace have grown quite significantly. In 2012, Malawi and Zambia were the most aggressive countries in this regard, with Malawi arresting an online journalist and Zambia seeking out the domicile of an online news service. Proposed legislation in Malawi, the E-Transactions and Management Bill (formerly E-Bill) is a sinister law that will give legal backing to ‘cyber-inspectors’ whose duties and functions are both ambiguous and vague and will also require, for instance, all those running websites with content directed at Malawians to reveal their locations and provide a full address. While we acknowledge that the Internet phenomenon, powered by rapidly changing technology, is something relatively new to the SADC region. The arrival and access of various Internet applications, thanks to Third Generation (3G) and Fourth Generation (4G) networks has caught many governments by surprise and quite predictably, policy is – as is always the case – lagging far behind. Hence, reactions such as those by the Malawi government – introducing legislation without wider consultation – and those of the Zambia government – attempting to shut down undesired websites – are not only retrogressive but gives the impression that no national benefit whatsoever can be realised from harnessing the power of the Internet. Indeed, the description of applications such as Facebook and Twitter as “tools for regime change”, as one Zimbabwe minister once remarked to the United Nations Human Rights Council, are not only unfortunate but they project unjustified State paranoia and dangerous insecurities. That Zimbabwe itself has a law – the Interceptions of Communications Act – that can be directed at journalists or bloggers is chilling. Freedom of expression in Cyberspaces is also a matter that will be reviewed against the backdrop of the Leveson Inquiry outcomes, some of which may also affect bloggers. Added to this, issues of digital security and privacy are also quite new to the region and more aggressive advocacy will be needed to streamline these issues and bring substantive attention to them by journalists, bloggers and the wider public. With new technology, new threats are also emerging via the use of powerful communication tools such as smartphones, phablets and tablets. Hence, beyond knowing how to put a good story together, journalists will also need to know and understand very technical issues about the devices they use, how their information is transmitted and also, how they can fight off or counter State surveillance and be safe online. This 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\" )UHHGRP2QOLQH