The Windhoek Declaration is critical for MISA Zimbabwe and indeed other media freedom, freedom of
expression and access to information lobby and advocacy groups as it is the foundation upon which our
work is built.
The Declaration is a historic document that gave birth to the World Press Freedom Day commemorations
as we know them today, and the African Charter on Broadcasting, among its other benchmarks.
The 30th annivesary commemorations in Windhoek also coincided with the 25th anniversary of MISA
Zimbabwe during the year under review.
On the back of these developments, MISA Zimbabwe’s National Governing Council Chairperson,
Golden Maunganidze, and the organisation’s National Director, Tabani Moyo, were elected and appointed
chairperson MISA Regional Governing Council and MISA Regional director, respectively.
In view of these momentous events, I am therefore honoured to extend our special tribute to the
vision and foresight of the men and women who launched the regional MISA in 1992 to promote a free,
independent, diverse and pluralistic media as envisaged in the Windhoek Declaration.
Our programming, activities and interventions during the year under review were thus anchored and
hinged on our 2021 – 2025 Strategic Plan which was inspired by the vision and foresight of our forebearers
as we continue to stay the course in our defence of citizens’ rights to free expression, media freedom and
access to information.
This requires strategic repositioning and rebranding to ensure efficient responses to emerging local,
regional and global issues as pronounced in our vision and mission statements and values as an
organisation.
I am therefore happy to report that through our 2021 Annual Report we will be able to showcase how
we continue to endure and prevail as the lead organisation in terms of our mandate, mission, vision and
values.
These emerging issues relate to free expression, access to information, media freedom, broadcasting,
digital rights, safety and security of journalists, media professionalism and regional networking.
This is not to say it was success after success all the way as we also had the inevitable challenges that
come with the nature of the work we are involved in.
These challenges are not unique to Zimbabwe alone, but permeate the southern African region as a
whole in the wake of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and stifling of online expression under the
guise of controlling the pandemic.
The future of the media (sustainability) is also under threat in the context of the intricate challenges
posed by pandemics, climate change, natural disasters, dwindling revenue and the role of big tech
companies vis-à-vis the quest for supporting and defending a resilient media.
As highlighted in our 2021 State of the Media Report, the year under review was a mixed bag of progress
on one hand and retrogression on the other hand in terms of the operating media environment.

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