Migration to Digital Broadcasting MISA Interventions Influencing Balanced Elections Coverage by Broadcasters An overview of the region shows that with the exception of South Africa, which is far ahead and has appointed a digital migration advisory council, many countries are just starting to, or have not started preparations for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting. MISA carried out various advocacy activities at regional and national levels to influence fair and balanced coverage of elections. MISA actively participated in the drawing up of an Elections Code of Conduct for Broadcasters in Botswana in collaboration with the Independent Electoral Commission and the National Broadcasting Board of Botswana. The International Telecommunications Union has given the African region the deadline of 2015 to migrate their services from analogue to digital broadcasting. The deadline might seem a long way off but judging from the South African process, a lot is involved in digital migration readiness and countries which have not started preparations are way behind schedule. However, it is encouraging to see movement in some countries during this period. For example, Botswana has launched a digital migration task force. It also disseminated the Guidelines on Broadcast Coverage of Elections in the SADC Region, and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections to journalists and other stakeholders. However, attention was not only focused on broadcasters. MISA, with its partners, organised pre-election training to capacitate journalists to provide high 48 quality coverage of elections using ICTs. The training was hosted for journalists in Botswana and Namibia in September. MISA Namibia further hosted an Elections Reporting Seminar to influence balanced gender reporting. Impact was seen in countries like Botswana where an opposition party lodged a formal complaint with SADC about biased coverage from state broadcasters and quoted guidelines which were brought to its attention by MISA. The broadcasting regulator in Botswana also instituted penalties against Radio Botswana and Botswana Television for violating the Elections Code instructing them to accord equal airtime to opposition parties for their political campaigns. Through its activities, MISA influenced fair and balanced elections coverage and raised awareness among political parties, journalists and the general public about regional election instruments. It also contributed to excellence in journalism through improved quality of elections reporting as well as promoting use of ICTs to disseminate information. Influencing Broadcasting Legislative and Policy Reforms Promoting community radio sustainability remained a MISA priority in this review period. To that end MISA, in collaboration with the Southern African Media Development Fund (SAMDEF), carried out a baseline study of community media in 11 SADC countries. The study, which involved both print and broadcast community media, was to enable MISA and SAMDEF to provide interventions such as capacity building in programming, governance and finance with the objective of identifying a sustainability model. Data generated assisted in determining funding criteria and capacity building requirements. The long-term objective is to develop a sustainability model that can be replicated in the region. In Zambia, the Chapter continued with the Radio and Good Governance Project in which 15 community radio stations received training in resource mobilisation 49