This report commences with a general overview of the media freedom and freedom of expression situation in southern Africa. Thereafter it follows the programmatic sequence of MISA’s Second Strategic Partnership Programme (SPPII), commencing with Programme A up to the last Programme E. Chapters on Communication and Dissemination and Implementation are also included. The annual external financial audit report is a separate document. of freedom of expression for all. institutions and individuals accountable. Unfortunately, developments in the region point out a yawning deficit in the region’s high standards on freedom of expression. The media has faced serious challenges ranging from issues of sustainability arising from the global recession, to new laws enacted or bills introduced whose sum effect would be to erode freedom of expression and entrench control by governments. Last year was an election year in Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. In Zimbabwe, residual tensions carried over from the 2008 Presidential Election culminating in the Government of National Unity (GNU), all added to the environment that shaped further challenges for the media. It is of concern that threats and even actual physical violence visited upon media practitioners, verbal attacks, including racist slurs made by powerful individuals in society that have been targeted at media practitioners, have all contributed to an atmosphere of intimidation. This can only be viewed as limiting freedom of expression and the media. Overview of the state of the media: 2009 As diverse as the Southern African region is, there is as much diversification with respect to the state of the media in each of the countries. It could be argued that as a region, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has over time developed policies, apart from national Constitutions, that portray the region’s aspirations of a human rights culture, which includes explicit guarantees This may vary from country to country, but media practitioners and owners have had to navigate their way around this environment in order to play an important role of holding governments, powerful 16 Elections by their very nature tend to be characterised by robust debate and conflicting ideas and opinions. Sometimes these tensions take the form of dangerous fanaticism like that which characterised the elections in Zambia. On 28 July 2009, ruling Movement for MultiParty Democracy (MMD) supporters went on the rampage, assaulting journalists reporting on the return of President Rupiah Banda from Uganda. Such incidents have the potential to curtail media freedom which is a cornerstone of democratic societies. State of print media in Southern Africa State-media relations in the region have also painted a grim picture of an uneasy relationship between the two as in the continued selective treatment of government controlled and private media. For example, in Botswana, Lesotho and Tanzania, there have been strong allegations that governments were withholding advertising to media houses that carried dissenting voices. Another form of censorship has been the attack by government officials on private media proprietors and practitioners like the targeting of Gwen Lister in Namibia, as well as the barring of media from press conferences organised by government. The same disturbing trend was observed in Malawi’s post elections. It is this intolerance by governments that reveals a huge chasm between what the region aspires towards and the reality of the situation on the ground. 17