Journalists and media practitioners in Southern Africa face relatively similar regulatory and legislative challenges, exposing them to a wide range of risks in their line of duty. Among the regulatory and legislative challenges are repressive media laws, restrictive policies, and arbitrary arrests of journalists and denial of access to information, among others. For example, while in Zimbabwe journalists are subjected to a rigorous registration process and are denied access to information considered privy to the state through the Access to Information Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), journalists in Swaziland are deterred from effectively fulfilling their mandate to empower citizens with information, due to at least thirty-two repressive laws, among them the Official Secrecy Act, the Parliamentary Privileges Act and the Books and Newspapers Act.

Likewise, journalists practicing in Zambia are endowed with challenges and efforts to introduce an Information Bill that ensures the sustainability of a free press in the country have been thwarted. More so, recently journalists trading in Zambia are being arrested and intimidated. Similarly in Lesotho, the Telecommunications Act of 2000 introduced a new set of legislations to further govern and tighten the operations of journalists. In addition, journalists are liable to persecution given the ambiguous nature of defamation laws.

Hence there is a need to enhance the capacity of journalists unions in order to effectively convey messages that promote press freedom. Unions can be supported through training on mobilization, coordinating and sustaining Unions. This support can be provided to representatives and leadership of journalists. There is also a need for Unions with assistance from other stakeholders to come up with Media Ethics and Standards as part of self regulatory mechanisms and further deliberate on a regional advocacy strategy. This project will attempt to address the issue by establishing a set of standards guiding the profession, institutionalizing special interests networks, establishing vibrant channels of communication in defense of freedom of expression and coming up with regional advocacy strategies.