Community Broadcasting MISA Namibia is working on a pilot project to set up community radio stations in six regions of Namibia. Steering committees were set up to mobilise the communities in those areas, with special emphasis on community ownership and control of future community radio stations. A National Coordinator was appointed to head this project. In Zimbabwe the Mutare Advocacy Committee held a broadcasting “ Open the Airwaves Campaign” workshop in Nyanga on 25-26 October, 2002. The workshop focused on the issue of community broadcasting. Parliamentarians, Councillors and civic society leaders from Mutare attended the workshop, which discussed among other things the weakness of the current broadcasting law and what role the Mutare community can play in the setting up of community radio stations. In line with the public awareness campaign around the broadcasting issue the Masvingo Advocacy Committee held a workshop for members of Parliament, Councillors and civic society leaders in Masvingo at the Great Zimbabwe Hotel on November 2, 2002. The workshop discussed the need for the Masvingo community to have its own community radio station and also the weaknesses of the current law. News Exchange The Misanet News Exchange Programme (MNEP), was established in order to benefit the Southern African Community Development Countries, with the exchange of news among the English language publications. This Programme which has since been extended to the two Portuguese speaking countries two years ago, has progressing well, despite setbacks experienced with publishers in Portuguese speaking countries who fail to honour their commitment, which affects the continued exchange of news on daily basis, to the Misanet News Exchange Programme. There was, however few contributions from Angola publications early in 2001. Currently, the news exchange only receives news from MediaFax, and Savana both from Mozambique, since our partners in Angola have not been able to send any news since last year. The news exchange, receives continually on daily basis publications from English speaking countries such as IRIN, The Chronicle from Malawi, The Namibian from Namibia, PlusNews, and The Standard from Zimbabwe. 31