MISA’s communications and dissemination strategy is aimed at supporting the work of the various programme areas; strengthening the brand of MISA as the leading organisation in media freedom and freedom of expression in the Southern African Development Community (SADC); ensuring that MISA produces and disseminates materials and resources meaningful to stakeholders; and galvanising pubic support on media freedom and freedom of expression issues. Communication Policy The communication policy, developed in the previous financial year, was approved at the end of the year under review. This will ensure there is a policy to strengthen the strategy that was approved in the previous financial year but could not be properly implemented due to policy gaps. Consequently, in the next financial year the proper implementation of this policy will begin and training will be conducted to improve communication within MISA. Compilation of the MISA Style Manual has begun but will only be finalised once the design of all corporate materials is completed. The style manual will form part of the organisation’s training manual. Information Technology The website was continually updated and backed up over the year to ensure that stakeholders received up-to-date information on media freedom and freedom of expression within SADC. A web-monitoring tool was installed towards the end of the year and registered more than 15 000 hits between January and March 2007, and the number of hits continues to increase. However, the tool also showed that most people do not spend a lot of time on the website and, in an effort to ensure that it is more user-friendly and that information stored there is more accessible, MISA embarked on a website revamp which is set to be completed in the next financial year. MISA mailing lists were maintained and updated as membership increased. During the course of the year the web server crashed and had to be replaced. It was replaced with one that has the capacity to host other sites and in future will host various national chapter sites, as well as the website for the Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO). Chapters in Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe continued to update their websites. MISA South Africa has embarked on a website redesign and it is set to be published on the MISA server during the next financial year. All chapters maintained their mailing lists and updated them accordingly. The MISAnet news exchange was still running during 2006/2007. The organisation is exploring ways of expanding MISAnet into a news pool organisation, as it benefits MISA’s members directly. Publicity As part of MISA’s efforts to establish a corporate identity, several branded materials were produced, which helped to improve the organisation’s visibility. Another MISA banner is still being produced and it will be the principal banner used at MISA functions. MISA folders were produced for use at regional and national functions, while business cards were redesigned to incorporate the organisation’s colours and corporate identity. All these efforts have begun to provide MISA with a consistent image that will be further enhanced by compliment slips, redesigned letterheads, brochures and fax sheets, which will be developed in the next financial year. 62 Annual Report 2007