MISA Regional Governing Council chairperson Simphiwe Mdlalose (centre) hands over the Journalist of the Year award to The Namibian journalist, Werner Menges, at the first ever Namibia Media Awards, hosted by MISA Namibia in November 2003 Namibia launched its media awards that were embraced by all media in the country including state-owned media. The awards were given out to media practitioners in November 2003. The event was well-attended and recipients were both from private and state-owned media. At the regional level, MISA continued with its John Manyarara Investigative Journalism award given around May 3 every year since 2000. 7.4.2 Training activities Even though it was agreed that MISA would not focus on training per se, some training has had to be undertaken by the organization in attempts to help its members and partners in understanding and advancing MISA’s advocacy work. In Malawi, NAMISA organised a number of training courses for journalists, especially in elections reporting. Five journalists and editors from Malawi attended regional elections reporting workshops in South Africa. NAMISA in conjunction with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation and USAID ran a series of elections reporting workshops in the run up the elections held in May 2004. MISA-Tanzania in conjunction with Friedrich Neumann Foundation (FNF) and the Institute of Multiparty Democracy (IMD) held a training seminar to enhance relations between media and political parties in the country. In this event, 20 publicity officers from various political parties were trained on how to engage with the media as both media and politicians need each other. The event was culminated by the provision of certificates to candidates who attended the five days training. MISA Annual Report (April 2003 – March 2004) 82