Between January and December 2006 MISA recorded a total of 144 media freedom and freedom of expression violations against individual journalists and institutions in the SADC region. This represented a decrease by 11 (or 7,6 per cent) from the previous year’s 155. Number of alerts by country: January to December 2006 Number of alerts by violations: January to December 2006 2.1.2 Trends in 2006 Since the turn of the 21st century, Zimbabwe has led the pack in terms of the number of violations recorded. The status quo remained intact in 2006 despite an initial optimism following the departure of Professor Jonathan Moyo, the architect of Zimbabwe’s harsh media laws. It soon became apparent, however, that Moyo’s successor, Dr Tichaona Jokonya, was not an agent for change. In fact at the time of his sudden death in July 2006, he had filed an affidavit opposing the application for registration of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the banned Daily News and Daily News on Sunday. Unlike previous years, there was a significant increase in violations in South Africa, largely due to a number of high profile court battles that captured the attention of the region. The epic Jacob Zuma trial received unprecedented media coverage and commentary, which did not go unnoticed by the presiding Judge Willem van der Merwe, who in his judgment chastised those who had breached the subjudice rule. “I have no problem with fair comment and the media’s duty to keep the public informed of important matters,” he said. “What is, however, disconcerting, is the fact that some pressure groups, organizations and individuals found the accused guilty ... without knowing what the evidence is and long before all the evidence was presented.” In so doing, Judge Van der Merwe set the tone for what was to follow: a barrage of civil defamation claims by Zuma against a long list of publishers, editors, newspaper titles, reporters and a cartoonist for their coverage and comment on his rape trial. Annual Report 2006 11