When last in South Africa, 10 years ago, WAN-IFRA launched the Declaration of Table Mountain, a continent-wide campaign for governments to repeal criminal defamation and ‘insult laws’. It was driven by the conviction that Africa urgently needed a strong, free and independent press to act as a watchdog over public institutions. The annual press freedom roundtable invites media from across the continent to assess the progress since 2007 and determine whether we are any closer to achieving this goal, and if not, what needs to be done to get us there.