State of the media in Southern Africa - 2003 ❍ Promote a self reliant, non-partisan and independent media that informs, empowers, educates and entertains; ❍ Nurture media freedom in an ethical, competent and professional media environment; ❍ Strengthen and support the development of a vibrant and participatory media sector; ❍ Lobby for access to information in order to enhance transparency and citizen participation in government, judiciary and legislative issues; and ❍ Promote democracy, human rights and the advancement of equality, human dignity, freedom and non-discrimination. ❍ Advocate and advance gender equality to redress imbalances in the media and society. MISA History and legal status M ISA was established in 1992 as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and registered as a Trust in Windhoek, Namibia following the adoption of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press. MISA seeks to contribute to the implementation of this declaration in the SADC region. MISA operations are conducted by its Regional Secretariat based in Windhoek, Namibia which is guided by the Regional Governing Council made up of the Regional Council Chairperson and the chairpersons of the national chapters. The MISA Trust Funds Board, which is autonomous, has oversight over the financial and objectives of the organisation. MISA currently has national chapters in 10 SADC countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, while it has a representative to run its operations in Angola. Each national chapter is serviced by a national secretariat under the guidance of the National Governing Council. Membership in MISA is open to individual media practitioners, media houses and associations who join MISA at national level. MISA’s main achievements are in the areas of media freedom monitoring and the issuing of action alerts highlighting violations of this right in the southern African region. It has campaigned for an enabling environment for media to operate freely as part of a democratic system. During the last ten years, MISA has provided skills training opportunities for many media workers in the region. Over 600 journalists and media practitioners and managers have received training in computer aided and internet research, editorial and circulation management, financial and strategic management, project, marketing and business management, community radio management, thematic reporting skills training (financial, economic, elections and gender). During this period over 80 journalists and media practitioners and managers took part in the MISA exchange programme, allowing them the opportunity to learn new skills or improve on existing ones outside their place of employment and mostly in another southern African country. MISA has sponsored over 20 journalists and media managers to attended Highway Africa, the premier ICT annual event hosted by Rhodes University for the last 5 years. In line with the 1991 Windhoek Declaration, MISA established the Southern Africa Media Development Fund (SAMDEF) which provides media businesses with loan and venture capital and the Southern Africa Institute of Media Entrepreneurial Development (SAIMED) which offers media management training and development services. So This Is Democracy? 2003 161 Media Institute of Southern Africa