Democracy in Botswana under President Khama could easily pass for dictatorship. After scraping the Ministry of Communication, Science and technology, state media; print and broadcasting are now under his bosom through the Ministry of State President. A directorate of intelligence and security has since been set up creating an environment of fear, suspicion and mistrust among citizens. Botswana is a country living in fear, both perceived and real. Despite the terror of fear that seem to have fallen the country, President Khama is not always having is way, his infamous Media Practitioners Act of 2008 has failed to take off. Intense lobbying from MISA has meant that publishers have refused participation while the law society as refused to provide a chair as required by law. most difficult year in recent years. Swaziland has been the second biggest threat to media freedom in the region with the King as the single biggest threat to article 24 (1) of the Swazi constitution, which guarantees every person the right to free speech and opinion. The King at the pleasure of government continue to clamp down on the media and any dissent to his policies and leadership. Criticism of the King and Royal Family is off limits and transgressions often draw the anger of the King who has in the past personally reprimanded the media for criticizing him. A 2008 MISA study into censorship in Swaziland’s newsrooms singled out the monarchy as the main predator of press freedom in Swaziland. The once vibrant, unrelenting and promising Swazi media now resembles a tired sleeping dog. A statutory media council is underway after government refused to register a voluntary selfregulatory council, the Media Complaints Committee. Zambian made international headlines. The government in an attempt to clamp on the media dusted off the Penal Code, a colonial piece of legislation to press criminal charges under section 177 1 (a) against a news editor for supposedly distributing pornography and obscene 26 material. The news editor had sent pictures of woman giving birth outside a hospital unattended by health workers. The pictures were not printed in the newspaper for what the paper referred to as “disturbing” but sent them to the highest political, civil and religious leaders to “see the impact and help end the strike by health workers” When government failed to demonstrate how a woman in pain and labor could corrupt public morals, the high court threw the case out. Prior to above, the Zambian media had been physically harassed and beaten by party cadres from the ruling party. MISA Regional Secretariat wrote to the President of Zambia expressing concern at the deteriorating media environment, a meeting was also convened with the media advisor to the president who assured MISA that Government did not tolerate harassment of media workers and offenders would be booked. relations with media are that of arch enemies looking for an opportunity to strike. A statutory media council looms and is the latest weapon. The above scenarios aimed at narrowing the media space and infringing on free expression played out in different throughout the region. On September 25th, despite opposition from the public, the Namibia government passed a communication Bill popularly referred to as the ‘Spy Bill’. The act contains an interception clause, which gives government power to snoop into electronic, telecommunication and other forms of communications of citizens. The Malawian government continued to bully the media, including an advertising ban in the Nation Publication Limited, a publisher of several newspapers on accusation of anti government reporting. Such was the environment that Zambia found itself, the current government 27