MISA launched the first national campaign in Malawi and in March 2013 we met with the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) and a number of Malawian stakeholders to draft a Bill decriminalising free speech in Malawi. Despite the positive start, the campaign met with some resistance in May 2013, when President Joyce Banda refused to sign the Table Mountain Declaration – a statement issued in Cape Town, South Africa on 3 – 6 June 2007, stating the conviction that Africa urgently needs a strong, free and independent press to act as a watchdog over public institutions, a crucial role that the press is hindered from and punished for playing by the widespread resort to ‘insult laws’ and criminal defamation, in particular. The APAI declaration. Photo: MISA Regional Secretariat images, 2014. Access to information and the African Platform on Access to Information MISA is the secretariat of the APAI Working Group and thus a driving force in the campaign, which continued to gain momentum in 2013. Following the APAI resolution in 2012 and after intensive lobbying efforts from MISA and its partners, the Pan-African Parliament adopted the ‘Midrand Declaration on Press Freedom in Africa’, which further recognised the APAI Declaration, calling on African Union (AU) member states to review and adopt access to information laws. Also in 2013, Rwanda became the eleventh country in Africa to adopt an ATI law and the sixth country to do so since the APAI campaign was initiated. At an international level, representatives from MISA and the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC) travelled to Paris on behalf of the APAI working group, where they succeeded in placing APAI 24 on the agenda of a meeting of African delegates representing the Africa group within UNESCO, and pushing for it to be placed on the agenda of the next UNESCO executive board meeting. In addition to efforts at a policy level, the APAI working group undertook a research survey using the principles of the APAI Declaration as a benchmark to ascertain the current state of access to information in 15 African countries. The research was launched on International Right to Know Day, 28 September 2013 and supported by a continentwide awareness drive on the importance of effective ATI legislation. Campaign to repeal laws criminalising free speech In 2012, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, Pansy Tlakula, appointed MISA the regional focal point for a southern African campaign to repeal laws that criminalise free speech. Banda said she did not intend on using the laws criminalising free speech, but she would not repeal them during her term because the next President may want to use them. This was a blow to the decriminalisation campaign, although it had one unintended consequence, the extensive media coverage of the President’s refusal to sign the Declaration. This led to the publication of the Declaration in a number of newspapers and thus there was widespread awareness of the Declaration, an issue that had received little attention prior to this event in Malawi. MISA will launch the next national campaign in Zambia. The timing could not be more crucial as the country has seen an increase in the number of journalists charged under dubious offences, generally perceived as an attempt by the government to clamp down on critical online journalists. MISA expects to meet with stiff opposition to the campaign, but with strong coalitions with the media, legal professionals and civil society we are prepared to fight the growing use of these archaic laws. Midrand Call to Action on Media Freedom and Public Broadcasting in Africa In December 2013, MISA collaborated with the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and Article 19 to host a continental conference titled, Media Legislative Reforms and Transforming State Broadcasters into Public Broadcasters in Africa. The conference adopted the Midrand Call to Action: Media Freedom and Public Broadcasting in Africa. The Call to Action calls on all African institutions, decision-makers, civil society and social justice organisations and members of the public to promote media freedom on the African continent and commit to striving to transform and strengthen all State broadcasters into public broadcasters. To date, over 33 civil society organisations representing more than 200 advocacy, research, human rights, democracy and good governance networks in Africa have endorsed the Call. Working towards The SADC We Want MISA was pleased to join a regional reference group to create a value study and a broader campaign titled The SADC We Want. The campaign will focus on: • establishing an independent SADC (regional) Court; • establishing of a regional Parliament with legislative powers; • revitalising SADC National Committees; • evolving the SADC Secretariat to a Regional Authority; and • institutionalising engagement between civil society and SADC. MISA is particularly focused on developing an information-sharing platform for civil society organisations working in different areas of regional development. We aim to make communication and collaboration between civil society organisations stronger and more regular, helping them to work more cohesively and with more impact on issues where they have a common agenda. 25