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Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Officially launched in September 1992, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is a non-governmental organisation with members in 11 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. It was created to help implement the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press.
MISA's work is founded on the fundamental values of freedom of expression, access to information, media diversity, pluralism and independence as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in particular article 19.
While ensuring that gender-specific needs form an integral part of all activities, MISA seeks to play a leading role in creating an environment in which the free flow of information, ideas and opinions are encouraged through professionally run media as a principal means of nurturing democracy and human rights in Africa.
MISA aims to create an environment in which civil society is empowered to claim information and access to it as unalienable rights and in which the resultant freer information flow strengthens democracy by enabling more informed citizen participation. MISA work is focused on 5 programme areas of - Freedom of Expression
- Media Freedom Monitoring
- Broadcasting Diversity and ICT
- Media Support; and
- Legal Support
Through its Freedom of Expression programme, MISA has instituted the ASK Campaign. In this project, MISA campaigns for and promotes the enactment and adoption of enabling laws and policies like the adoption of Access to Information laws that make availability and accessibility of information possible. Only with information can citizens fully participate in a democracy and actively exercise their human rights. Moreover, because it enhances knowledge, information is fundamental to the empowerment of the poor and disadvantaged in society and provides them with an opportunity to fulfill their human aspirations. Likewise, an effective information flow is crucial to a functioning market economy.
Through its Media Support programme, MISA has also carried out Election Reporting training for media practitioners with the aim of improving the media's coverage of elections and then also undertaken election coverage monitoring.
The role of MISA is primarily one of a coordinator, facilitator and communicator, and for this reason MISA aims to cooperate with all like-minded organisations and individuals to achieve a genuinely free, diverse and pluralistic media in southern Africa. Such media would be able to provide balanced and professionally presented information for citizen participation in governance.
For more information on Misa, visit the website www.misa.org
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