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The problems faced by media practititoners with accreditation under AIPPA
Address to the MISA/ZUJ meeting at Mbizi Game Park Lodges, Harare
Luke Tamborinyoka, Secretary-General, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ)
January 25, 2003

Our problem, as the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, is not necessarily with registration, but with the whole Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which we believe is the most determined assault on our generic freedom of speech, enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe under the Bill of Rights.

We believe the whole Act is meant to stifle press freedom and basically, to allow a hand-picked Minister of Information to handpick a Media and Information Commission, which in turn handpicks and determines how and when journalism should be practised in this country, through a dubious and blatantly unconstitutional process called registration.

In the days of old, before the advent of excitable young politicians, journalists were simply accredited so that the government could simply maintain a roll of who was practising as a journalist. There was no criminal liability and no payment demanded for such a simple and honest process called registration, carried out, not by a body chosen by the professionals themselves as in other statutory bodies here and other such bodies in neighbouring countries, but by a government-appointed Commission.

Under the proposed amendments, the word registration is replaced with the word accreditation but this does not in any way redeem this dangerous and blatantly obnoxious Act or change the fact that one will have to bend his/her knees to be accredited by Mahoso's dubious Commission.

On the whole, the proposed amendments are just like applying lip-stick on a frog. Lip-stick does not in any way beautify that ugly amphibian and in fact, only serves to make it uglier and more fearful to other species in its immediate environment.

From the onset, the process of accreditation, which is already being challenged in court, is unconstitutional because our right to freedom of speech is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and Constitutional rights are not renewable after 12 months, as the MIC seeks to do.

My colleagues from MISA and myself, as a ZUJ representative, were at pains in trying to impress this point in December when we made presentations to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications when it sought our views on the proposed 27 amendments to AIPPA.

In fact, we wonder, as a Union, how the registration clause found its way into the Act because the chairman of the PLC, Dr Eddison Zvobgo, was clear that registration was not palatable in a democratic society. He was clear that people do not need to have licences or certificates to exercise their constitutional right to speak.

The aim is to create a subservient media, a Dzepfunde media which forever gladdens the government and makes sure that the journalist writes "good" stories which will assure registration by the MIC at the end of the year.

The end result of this accreditation process, which has created so much havoc in the media and caused consternation among media practitioners, has resulted in the casualisation of journalism.

Yes, the journalist is now a casual worker, whose tenure of employment is at the whims of the MIC. The journalist's contract, which is now "renewable" after 12 months, is at the whims of the handpicked Mahoso Commission.

A glance at section 40 (2) on the Composition of the Media and Information Commission will show how the architect of this particular Act wants to do away with input from stakeholders. The amendment takes away the right we had as leaders of journalists under the previous law to nominate three members into the Commission. Now the MIC is going to be wholly appointed by the Minister, and it is anyone's guess what this means.

The composition of the MIC affects the whole Commission and its powers as set out in section 52. It were better if the MIC were accorded overwhelming powers if its members were elected. But to give such overriding powers to a body hand-picked by a handpicked minister, against the grain of tradition of Parliament, is to frown upon the journalism fraternity in this country. Our worry is that the MIC, or the Minister-Inspired Commission, is an unprecedented deviation from the normal practice of Parliament.

1) Architects Act Chapter 27: 01 Architects Council has 11 members. Two elected by the minister and nine by Institute of Architects of Zimbabwe.

2) Legal Practitioners Act : 11 member council, nine democratically elected by members of the Law Society of Zimbabwe.

3) Veterinary Surgeons Act: six member council; Only two are appointed by the minister and the rest elected by veterinary surgeons.

A whole host of eight other statutory bodies consist of democratically elected members but AIPPA is in a class of its own, as if it were crafted by sascams or political mamparas who are filthy, reckless and uncouth.

The Minister, through his annointed Commission, seeks to arrogate upon himself the role of a demi-God, the Alpha and Omega of Zimbabwean journalism, imposing upon himself the extra-terrestrial powers to author, initiats and terminate one's tenure as a journalist through this dubious process of compulsory accreditation.

Which brings us to the accreditation form. Participants will remember that as ZUJ, after taking a painstaking decision to register, we went to the courts and filed an urgent court case against the intrusive nature of the registration form.

High Court judge Justice Lavendar Makoni ruled that our matter was not urgent when we had concerns over demands for our e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, passport numbers, drivers' licence numbers and when they will expire.

Some will remember how we all laughed at the time and said the MIC could soon ask us for our shoe sizes, favourite food and our romantic tastes. We felt that even by AIPPA's pathetic standards, the request for such personal information was a violation of section 30 of the very same Act, which demands that a public body must give reasons why it is requesting such personal information.

It must be borne in mind that the Act does not allow Media Houses to employ any journalist who is not accredited. This means the MIC can always deal with journalists through their respective employers, as opposed to venturing into personal details as to whether one is married or not as well as one's place of residence. The government, through the MIC, has no reason to request for information that is so personal as to give one this eerie feeling that this is an intelligence-gathering exercise disguised as a registration process.

The dual accreditation process has created a lot of problems and anxiety. If the journalist is registered and the media house is not registered, both are in trouble. If the media house is registered and the journalist is not accredited, both are in trouble again. It is a sinister arrangement which creates a lot of fissures between journalists and their employers.. As we speak, some journalists have been accredited while there has not been any response to other submitted forms from various media houses. Specific cases are still being compiled but the debilitating effect of the registration process has dealt a blow to media multiplicity in the small media community in the Midlands.

Because of the prohibitive costs of registration of media houses, six media houses have closed down in the Midlands, leaving journalists without jobs and the communities starved of information. And information is power. The ZUJ's second Vice President, Mr Isdore Guvamombe, concerned about the effects of such a development to the access to information, which the Act purports to protect, is currently compiling a report but he has hinted to me that The Citizen, This Week, the North Midlands Gazette, Weekly Standard, Network Guardian and the Gokwe Forum, last published in December. We understand their problems have a lot to do with this dubious registration exercise which, instead of making information accessible to the people as suggested in the junior minister's Act, has affected the people's freedom to receive and impart information, which is their Constitutional right.

On Thursday, we read in The Daily Mirror that the editor of The Sun, Willie Muponda, was quizzed by officers of the CID Law and Order Section for operating without a licence. He said they demanded to see a receipt of $500 000 for the registration of media houses.

And now the juicy part:

The editor said he suspected that he was being victimised because of a story published in his newspapers on 8 November last year, headlined "Ascot man beaten to death by CID officers.

The post accreditation process is fraught with anxiety, especially after a substantial part of our members are yet to receive feedback from the MIC. Are they being registered, were their applications rejected, what exactly is happening?

Which brings us to a crucial question. If the Supreme Court throws out our challenge, will those who have not registered be allowed to belatedly submit their forms to Mahoso? If the Supreme Court rules in our favour, are we to assume that Mahoso will simply give us back our forms, without having photocopied our personal documents and handed them over to certain fearful offices, which we shall not disclose at this forum?

There are very limited options in the media fraternity, which is faced with its most defining moment since independence. What is the way forward? What exactly must we do?

Are we to all kneel down and pray and hope Hossana will land on this earth and scoop away away problems in one fell swoop?

Are we to fold our arms and allow the MIC to deregister our members in this grossly unconstitutional process assuming we lose our case in the Supreme Court? Are we to continue placing our hope in the Judiciary?

Which brings me to the conclusion that such questions are not for me to answer, but to the generality of the media fraternity in this country and the consumers of information, the resilient people of the Zimbabwe.

As journalists, students, lawyers or ordinary people, we must understand that media freedom is the people's freedom, under-pinned and guaranteed by a free press. Any democracy is founded upon the all-important pillar of freedom of speech, which is currently under siege from an unelected Junior Minister, whom we have all allowed to prance about the yard like an overexcited baby.

As we queue for basic commodities such as bread, sugar, maize-meal and salt, we must remember that we are also queueing for a basic commodity called freedom, which is currently in very short supply in Zimbabwe.

I thank you.

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