in that country. In other incidents journalists were banned from covering matters related to the monarchy, human rights activities imprisoned and media such as the Swazi Observers reprimanded for their reportage on corruption issues in that country. MISA also organized its AGM to take place in Swaziland with an objective to strengthen the impact for its fight against repressive laws in that country. MISA-Botswana organized the Buwa! Campaign to mobilize mass resistance against the Media Practitioner’s Act in Botswana which sought to establish a Statutory Media Council. The campaign has lobbied for the support of other civil society organization such as the Law Society of Botswana which has since refused to avail representative to serve on the Statutory Media Council. These initiatives by MISA have made it difficult for the government to implement the Media Practitioner’s Act. IMPACT not repeat again. MISA’s alerts, communiqués and statements helped to expose media violation and repressive laws specifically in Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. To further support its monitoring, MISA produced petitions and letters to the Zambian President Rupiah Banda seeking his intervention to stop the harassment of journalists by the political supporters of the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD). President Rupiah Banda responded promising to turn around the situation. MISA petitioned the government of Swaziland to review the Draft Media Commission Bill published by the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology. The Bill among others proposes a statutory body to regulate the media. It also contradicts the order of Parliament on self-regulation as stated in the 1997 Parliamentary report which called for the establishment of such by the media not government alone. Thus, MISA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on September 5, 2009, in Swaziland subsequently adopted a declaration against censorship and resolved to lobby the Swazi government and other SADC governments to repeal all laws that promote censorship in the media and broader civil society. The information distributed by MISA resulted in a global reaction to the cases involving journalists Chansa Kabwela in Zambia, as well as Jestina Mukoko and Shadreck Manyere in Zimbabwe. The exposure of the situation in Swaziland also forced media violators to apologize for their actions: Parliamentary Officials were compelled to apologize for expelling a female journalist from covering the official opening of the parliament because of her gender. Parliament also went on to assure MISA that such a repressive act will 40 In Namibia MISA made submissions to argue against the Communication Bill which was passed by the parliament. MISA exposed the bill as a threat to media freedom since it called for the interception of communication which the country regards as threats to national security. MISA argued that the bill does not spell out effective measures to protect it from abuse by those in authority against the media and citizens’ right to freedom of expression. As part of its media reform campaign against repressive media laws in Lesotho, MISA has commissioned a research study on insult/defamation laws in Lesotho. This study will be concluded in 2010 MISA also made submissions on the media and freedom of expression situation to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) sessions in Banjul, Gambia. MISA made presentation on media situation in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Meetings were also held with the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and other Awareness was also raised to campaign against the controversial Film and Publication Amendment Bill in South Africa. As a result of petitions and campaigns by MISA and other free expression organisations the Bill was sent back for further scrutiny. 41