CHAPTER 4: AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER THEMATIC TRENDS: 2011-2021 professional the news media are. Namibia, South Africa, and Mauritius are exemplary in this regard. For instance, though Namibia retains some restrictive apartheid-era laws, such as the Protection of Information Act (1982) and the Criminal Procedures Act (1977), it has not used any of these laws to restrict the media since attaining independence in 1990. Namibia has also demonstrated a progressive tendency by enacting the Witness Protection Act of 2017. In these contexts, there is provision for, and implementation of, constitutional provisions enabling freedom of expression and freedom of the press. As shown above, the media landscape in a politically stable context tends to be plural and diverse while functionally professional and critical. Conversely, the more uncertain, unstable and transitional the political environment is, the more precarious the state of "Conversely, the more uncertain, unstable and transitional the political environment is, the more precarious the state of freedom of expression..." freedom of expression/the press and the less assertive media are in their monitorial and watchdog roles. Countries that demonstrate policy stasis and regression (in terms of fully embracing the freedom of expression and the media) include Mali (see AMBS for 2012, 2016, and 2021), Madagascar (2019 AMB), Lesotho (2019 AMB), Cameroon (2018 AMB), and Benin (2021 AMB). In the case of Mali, whose constitution guarantees freedom of expression in line with key international instruments, it is noted that “the crisis, which has divided the country into two with the North occupied by Islamist and separatist invaders, has put some freedoms on hold, especially in the occupied areas. Similarly, the coup d’état on March 22 has weakened the freedom of the press”. The restrictive impact of the Malian security crisis has persisted since 2012. In 2016, it was noted that the “resultant successive states of emergency imposed” in reaction to the crisis “limit individual and collective freedoms” and have made “the question of religion…a taboo subject that certain newsrooms practice selfcensorship for fear of being targeted by ‘fundamentalist Islamists'”. In 2021, it was noted that “journalists systematically refuse specific programmes for fear of being physically hurt or seeing their facilities attacked”. The 2021 AMB refers to incidents where journalists were kidnapped, resulting in negotiations for their release between the state security apparatus and the kidnappers. The Republic of Congo provides another example in which the political environment can effectively limit freedom of 9 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER 11 YEARS IN REVIEW