World Press Freedom Day reportage on child issues and child rights, understanding the situation of children in southern Africa, discussions on conventions and laws protecting children’s rights as well as planning the project implementation. MISA chapters spearheaded the national celebrations of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2009. As part of the events the annual state of the media report, So This is Democracy?, was also launched. In environments such as Angola, MISA could only issue a press statement as a result of restrictions on public gatherings and as a result ten events were held in ten national chapters. The training provided skills to MISA’s national staff to carry out research and training of identified media houses in their particular countries. Hence a quantitative and qualitative research project as well as two group discussions with children was conducted in Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Botswana. In addition MISA contracted MMA to conduct training for two media houses in Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and Zambia respectively. The information gathered from the qualitative and quantitative media monitoring research as well as the group discussions provided the practical content for a guide for media practitioners on ethical reporting on issues concerning children. This guide will be compiled, printed and distributed to all the SADC countries. Child Reporting Monitoring (Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia) As part of the pilot project on Child Reporting Monitoring, a two-day training programme for six MISA Information and Advocacy officers was held in Johannesburg on 27-28 July in collaboration with Media Monitoring Africa (MMA). The Research and Information Officers of MISA-Zambia, MISA-Lesotho, MISA-Swaziland and MISA-Botswana as well as two Regional Office Staff attended the training. The training involved analyzing the media 34 CAMEROON, Yaoundé : Police makes a security cordon around Cameroonian journalists on May 3, 2010 in Yaounde. Police in Cameroon forcefully stopped several hundred journalists from staging a demonstration on world press freedom day to call attention to the recent death of an editor held in detention. The banner reads ‘We are all Biby Ngota’. AFP PHOTO / STR