https://zimbabwe.misa.org Strategies for Internet Technology and Digital Rights Reporting by enacting emergency laws that criminalised false information and threatened punitive sanctions against media houses found guilty of spreading false information on COVID-19. Meanwhile, Tanzania repealed and replaced its Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations further exacerbating the crackdown on free speech. In Zambia authorities warned the public against circulating false information on social media platforms16. It is important to note that when governments enacted emergency laws that criminalised journalism they failed to make the crucial distinction between disinformation and misinformation. Disinformation refers to 17situations where actors, driven by political and/or economic interests, deliberately produce and distribute information intended to disinform whilst misinformation refers to 18information that is inaccurate and/or false but where there is no intention to mislead. Making this distinction could have ensured nuance in enacting emergency laws as the19category of misinformation extends to actors such as journalists who might unintentionally produce and/or spread misleading, inaccurate or false information, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic. In Southern Africa, like elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic threw into sharp relief the existing inadequacies of mainstream media, particularly the lack of specialised journalism skills for science and health communication. Researchers found that in the rush to cover all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic, many mainstream news outlets reassigned reporters and editors with no background or expertise in science or health communication to the story 20 . Thus, 21 aside from getting to grips with the terminology, methodologies, and research on viruses and pandemics, there was the additional challenge of interpreting data such as national fatalities. Mainstream media practices like reassigning reporters and editors with no specialised journalism skills to cover technical or specialist themes also account for why internet, technology and digital rights issues are scantily covered in the region. Study Rationale The internet is becoming ever more critical to the full enjoyment of human rights and being disconnected poses ever greater obstacles 22especially in the Southern African region, where many basic human rights are increasingly internet-enabled and facilitated by various communication technologies. Consequently, improved digital rights literacy amongst citizens is paramount. Given the 16See ‘State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2020’ report https://cipesa.org/fifafrica/report-the-state-of-internet-freedom- in-africa-2020/ [Accessed 03 October 2020] 17See 2020 article on ‘Data Journalism and Misinformation’ by Oscar Westlund & Alfred Hermida, http://www.alfredhermida.me/ wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Westlund-and-Hermida-2020-Data-Journalism-and- Misinformation-Accepted-version.pdf [Accessed 20 November 2020] 18ibid 19ibid 20ibid 21ibid 22UNICEF Digital World Series: Access To The Internet and Digital Literacy https://www.unicef.org/csr/css/UNICEF_CRB_Digital_ World_Series_ACCESS.pdf [Accessed 17 August 2020] 5