REPORT FROM THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE REGIONAL GOVERNING COUNCIL The year under review saw new leadership at MISA. In-house veteran Kaitira Kandjii, former manager of the Freedom of Expression and Right to Know campaigns, took up the reigns from Luckson Chipare in April 2006 and five months later new Executive Committee (EC) members were elected. MISA welcomes the new Executive Committee members and wishes them every success in the implementation of their duties as they take the organisation to greater heights. The following are the new members of the Executive committee: POSITION NAME Regional Chairperson Thabo Thakalekoala (Lesotho) Deputy Regional chairperson Lomcebo Dlamini (Swaziland) Member Christof Maletsky (Namibia) Member Laona Segaetsho (Botswana) Ex-Officio Member Salva Rweyemamu (Tanzania) MISA welcomes back into the fold the Angolan chapter, after a break of four years. The chapter is now functional thanks to the new leadership and the new Secretariat staff. We are glad that the chapter is back with renewed strength and vigor. On a sad note, the organisation had to nullify MISA South Africa’s elections due to the non-compliance with certain MISA election guidelines. The chapter was asked to conduct new elections, which it has done. The year has seen varying states of media freedom in the region. Some countries achieved positive results, while in others the media freedom situation deteriorated. Of note are Zimbabwe and Lesotho where journalists continued to face state harassment. MISA, however, will not relent in the fight for media freedom and freedom of expression in both these countries and the region as whole. During the year under review two policies were approved for the regional organisation: one for communication and the other focusing on HIV and AIDS. We hope the communication policy will help to improve MISA’s communication – an area in which we are weak. The HIV and AIDS policy is designed to help us fight the pandemic within the organisation as well as in the various media houses. MISA intends to recommend this policy to media houses in the region, since media workers are either affected or infected by the disease and very few media houses have such in-house policies. 6 Annual Report 2007