Distinguished delegates, esteemed colleagues, media professionals, legal champions and our key technical partners from DW Akademie
It is my distinct honour to welcome you all to this Spaces of Solidarity Regional Assembly. As we gather today under our mandate to promote free expression across Southern Africa, we do so at a pivotal moment for journalism, digital rights and civic space in our region.
We ground today’s meeting in the legacy and ongoing momentum of our Windhoek engagements over the past few years. We are not starting from scratch; we stand on the shoulders of real, hard-won victories. Together, we celebrate major milestones across our region.
Today marks an exciting step forward for the next generation of media defenders as we prepare to launch the DW Akademie Freedom of Expression (FoX) Fellowships.
However, as our upcoming 2026 Freedom of Expression (FOX) Regional Survey will soon reveal, our collective victories are accompanied by severe, evolving threats. Across our borders, we face mounting pressures:
· Civic space and journalist safety are under direct siege from arbitrary arrests and the insidious use of spyware.
· Access to Information (ATI) bottlenecks and regulatory hurdles continue to undermine media viability and press freedom.
· Restrictive cybersecurity laws are increasingly weaponised to clamp down on digital rights and public online discourse.
This meeting is deliberately designed not as a talk shop, but as an action workshop.
Today, we will utilise the Africa Media Barometer (AMB) to diagnose national media landscapes across Eswatini, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We will rotate through country stations, scrutinise indicator scores, and translate those diagnostic findings directly into binding advocacy priorities, campaign formats, and timelines.
Through our World Café synthesis, our explicit goal is to break down operational silos among media creators, legal actors and youth voices. We will integrate media viability with legal defence mechanisms and co-draft a unified Regional Advocacy and Communications Plan.
When media workers are targeted, democracy suffers. But when we unite across borders, professions and generations within shared Spaces of Solidarity, we forge an unshakeable shield for free expression.
Thank you. Let us roll up our sleeves for an inspiring, impactful assembly.
I thank you
