SOUTHERN AFRICA: MISA RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT, LAUNCHES AFRICAN BROADCASTING CHARTER

MISA RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT ON SOUTHERN AFRICA, LAUNCHES AFRICAN
BROADCASTING CHARTER

On 3 May, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) launched its
annual review of press conditions in Southern Africa "So This is
Democracy?" This is the eighth year that MISA has published the report
covering press freedom violations in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.

In 2001, MISA issued 207 alerts concerning press freedom violations, an
increase of 14 per cent from the previous year, and a 117-per-cent surge
from 1994 when MISA first began monitoring press freedom conditions in
the region. MISA Regional Information Co-ordinator Kaitira Kandji says
the increase indicates both a worsening media environment in Southern
Africa and evidence of improved media monitoring. However, the alerts
are not necessarily an accurate measure of press freedom conditions in
each country. In Lesotho, Angola and South Africa, for example,
inadequate media monitoring does not reflect the frequent violations
that occur in these countries.

MISA also marked 3 May by launching the African Charter on Broadcasting
at a gala dinner held as part of the African Commission on Human and
People's Rights Sessions in Pretoria, South Africa. Representatives from
a majority of African States were in attendance. The charter, originally
adopted at a UNESCO conference in Namibia in May 2001 marking the 10th
anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, serves as a blueprint for
policies and laws determining the future of broadcasting and information
technology in Africa. MISA says media advocacy groups are preparing to
present the charter at UNESCO's upcoming World Summit on the Information
Society in Geneva in December 2003. The charter can be viewed on IFEX's
special World Press Freedom Day page (www.ifex.org/wpfd/misa02.html).