advocacy work is taking place to address gaps. A slight improvement has taken place in the sense that the media is now being challenged to improve, not only its coverage, but also its employment and involvement of women in the industry. A study on Women, abuse and the Swazi media was presented to journalists, media owners and other media stakeholders in the country. The 2007 study analysed the media coverage of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence campaign. The findings exposed considerable weaknesses in the media’s coverage of the campaign and gender violence stories. Typically gender violence stories lacked context, were not gender balanced, ignored gender issues, were told from a male perspective and negatively portrayed abused women. Interestingly, several journalists took issue with some of the findings, saying that they were simply reporting the facts. This reaction from the media is a challenge encountered in the region by MISA and its allies working on gender and HIV and AIDS issues. However, there is also evidently more openness and willingness from the media in the region, especially after the awareness- and advocacy-raising from the Gender and Media Baseline Study. This indicates that more training is needed on reporting issues of gender and HIV and AIDS. There was recognition from some media practitioners that it is easy to perpetuate stereotypes unconsciously when reporting gender issues. What is evident from these studies is the need for more media monitoring: overall, the media appreciates the feedback and makes an effort to improve. Successes There has been a shift, regionally and nationally, in MISA being acknowledged as impartial. This has created confidence in various sectors of society, as well as the media, because of the organisation’s participation in and attempts to address issues of gender and HIV and AIDS. This is evident from the various gender-related activities in which MISA, on behalf of the media, has been invited to participate. Several of the MISA chapters, which previously struggled to work with certain government departments, have either been co-opted onto national steering committees or are hosting workshops on strategic events such as the 16 Days of Activism. Several strategic partnerships have been forged regionally and nationally around the issue of gender, HIV and AIDS and the media. The African Comprehensive HIV-AIDS Partnership (ACHAP) is one such partnership that has worked with MISA Botswana to assist the media in devising HIV and AIDS policies and codes of conduct. Three media houses were selected for the pilot project, namely Mmegi, The Voice and Sunday Standard. The aim was to enhance the quality and quantity of fair and balanced news reports on HIV and AIDS. The second phase of the project is expected to run in the next financial year. The positive participation and feedback from the media houses and the public’s appreciation of these efforts have encouraged MISA to complete the exercise in line with MISA’s commitment to the Media Action Plan (MAP). MISA Swaziland, in collaboration with the country’s media, has looked at issues of HIV and AIDS and the role of the media. The discussions focused on MISA’s role as a coordinating body for the media sector within national response efforts to the epidemic. Consultants are compiling the results into a strategy. In Tanzania, the chapter’s efforts to address issues of gender, HIV and AIDS, and media freedom were positively received with two media houses drafting HIV and AIDS policies and two in-house training sessions being conducted. A coalition with HIV and AIDS organisations, like Rapid Fund and ABC, was formed and MISA Tanzania and Gender and Media Southern Africa Tanzania (GEMSAT) need to lobby media owners to adopt these policies. Annual Report 2008 31