The meeting for supporters/stakeholders will be held soon the fund has been established to chart out the way forward. Under this activity a number of meetings were held by the Media Legal Defence Fund committee to determine the illegibility of applicants to the Fund. Legal fees were sanctioned to defend “The People” journalists who had questioned president Mwanawasa’s sanity in a story they accused him of suffering from the Parkinson’s disease. Following the publication of the story three journalists from the newspaper and a student from Evelyn Hone College were detained without trial for nearly a month. After a lengthy battle in the courts the journalists were given bail and ZIMA had to pay the bail penalties which have since been reimbursed by the courts since the state entered a nolle proseque after the Editor apologised. Two other cases were brought before the committee but these did not meet the criteria for legal representation. Under this programme, MISA Zimbabwe runs two projects – the Media Defence Fund (MDF) and the Media Lawyers Network (MLN) In MISA Zimbabwe, the Media Defence Fund (MDF) assisted Stanley Karombo with legal fees in the matter in which he was arrested for contravening section 83 of AIPPA, which prohibits anyone from practicing journalism without accreditation. Karombo has since been removed from remand pending the finalization of Supreme Court cases in which Section 83 among many other sections are being challenged. The Media Defence Fund embarked on a lobby campaign through adverts on the delays in the passing of judgments by the Supreme Court. The judgments not yet released are the Capitol Radio challenge of the broadcasting law and the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe challenge of AIPPA. The adverts have already created a lot on interest among many people judging by the enquiries and comments received by the secretariat. The Minister of Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo has already commented on them, though in a negative way. The campaign is set to run throughout this year. It is hoped that the adverts will make the public aware of such delays, which constitute a violation of the rights of those challenging these repressive laws. The public awareness campaign on the Public Order and Security Act is still ongoing and the coming adverts will look into the changes that might be effected to make the law democratic. A submission is also going to be made to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications on the sections in POSA that affect the work of journalists and freedom of expression in general. 37