4.1 Programme Objectives D uring the period April 2003 to March 2004 MISA carried our a number of activities to fulfill its objective of promoting a political and economic environment to ensure that free expression and media freedom is enjoyed in the SADC region. In doing so, MISA set out to influence policy-makers and public opinion to support the repeal or reform of repressive legislation that obstructs media freedom and independence. Activities undertaken include awareness raising initiatives targeting the public and key decision-makers on the need for governments to adopt Access to Information legislation and for parliaments to speedily pass such legislation. Work was also carried out around media policies within the SADC context. All these activities took place at regional and as well at national level respectively. 4.1.1 Background The year under review saw governments consolidating and forming new alliances in their quest to solidify their grip on power in the region. Vocal civil society organizations become their main target. Governments consequently stepped up their campaigns to ensure that voices of dissent are not heard. In the same vein, civil society organizations formulated campaigns to expose human rights and free expression violations and put in place programs to fight and safeguard democratic values. MISA in turn continued to expand and strengthen its programmes. The focus of the organization under the programme for the period under review was to campaign for legislative environment that protects media freedom and guarantee the enjoyment of free expression. This environment was deemed to be too restrictive and less enabling in nature. 4.2 The ASK campaign The highlight of this programme in 2003 was the development of the ASK campaign which is the flagship advocacy campaign for the promotion of an enabling environment. The campaign is active at various levels, i.e it is designed to galvanise civil society support to serve as a mass pressure group for the adoption of access to information legislation, whilst also intensifying lobbying of governments and parliamentary bod ies to enact access to information legislation. The ASK campaign was unveiled at MISA’s regional annual general meeting in September 2003. Following that the regional secretariat facilitated a number of planning processes and networking activities to ensure that the campaign is developed to respond to national environments. One such meeting was held in October 2003 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and drew on the expertise of such organisations as Article 19, Open Democracy Advice Centre and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. This meeting was a learning curve for MISA staff and set the platform for implementation of the campaign at national and regional levels. Already intensive lobbying had been undertaken with governments in the region. Strategic partnerships with national and regional c ivil society organization have been identified. The MISA Annual Report (April 2003 – March 2004) 20