Regional overview The year 2008 was eventful for southern African media. In his inauguration speech in January 2008, Botswana’s newly elected president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, set the tone of government-media relations within the region when he classified the media in the same category as other social vices, such as alcoholism. Six months later, in August 2008, Khama’s government proposed passing a Media Practitioners Bill, with haunting similarities to Zimbabwe’s infamous Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Despite much criticism, by the end of December 2008, the draconian law had been signed into law. The new law requires, among others, that journalists be registered and that a statutory media council be imposed. During 2008 throughout southern Africa the media was faced with hypersensitive and intolerant governments, swift and harsh in their responses, which included closing down media houses, passing unfriendly legislation, threatening to withdraw licences, banning broadcast programmes and a rise in legal defamation cases. The Tanzanian government closed down the Mwanahalisi newspaper in October 2008 on charges that the paper had offended the ruling party and the family of President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. Notable was the impunity and swiftness with which government acted, bypassing all legal avenues. In Zambia, the presidential by-elections of October 2008 following the death of President Levy Mwanawasa the previous month were a grim reminder of how government-media relationships can be fragile, tense and often temporary. The government banned radio phone-in programmes on the pretext that they incited political violence and instability. The Post, the country’s leading private newspaper, was continually threatened with closure. Similarly, the Malawi and Lesotho governments seemed bent on a crusade to ban radio stations. Lesotho’s Harvest FM was off air for three months following a ban for allegedly defaming senior government officials, while a prominent journalist was charged with sedition. The ANC-led government took up arms against the media in South Africa over a publication of the cartoon ‘Rape of Justice’ by Zapiro in the Sunday Times and the Mail & Guardian. The ANC described the cartoon as an abuse of freedom of expression, while others suggested that it was a racist attack against black leadership. While South Africa was once seen as a regional model for media freedom, it appears to be regressing, having among the highest numbers of defamation cases in the region and a heavily politicised state broadcaster, the SABC. Namibia made its own defamation record, with three rulings against three media houses in the space of three months and four in 12 months. The year began with a dire media freedom outlook in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Angola and the situation remains bleak. Interventions and milestones One of the biggest and most critical milestones was in Zambia. The National Constitutional Conference (NCC) unanimously approved the provisions in the current draft constitution explicitly guaranteeing citizens’ right to information, press freedom and freedom of expression. When the draft constitution comes into effect in 2011, Zambia will 14 Annual Report 2009