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Press freedom curtailed
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-05
Monday February 2nd - Sunday February 8th 2004

Press freedom suffered a severe blow this week when Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku and three other Supreme Court judges defended the legitimacy of regulations outlawing journalists who practice without accreditation from the government appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC). This followed a November 2002 Supreme Court petition filed by the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) challenging the constitutionality of repressive sections of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the powers of the MIC, headed by Tafataona Mahoso.

In his judgement Chidyausiku ruled that the constitutional right to freedom of expression was not violated by AIPPA's Section 79, which forces journalists to register with the MIC or Section 83, which prohibits journalists from practising without accreditation. The powers vested in MIC under Section 85 of AIPPA were also deemed constitutional. Only Section 80 (1), (a) and (c) of the Act, which criminalized the abuse of journalistic privilege, was struck off the Statute books. But these had been removed anyway as a result of amendments to the Act made since the appeal was lodged. The devastating consequences of the ruling were immediately felt. Barely 24 hours after its delivery, Zimbabwe's popular alternative daily, The Daily News, was forced off the streets because its journalists had to first seek accreditation from the MIC. While the private media described Chidyausiku's ruling as "a death knell to Press freedom", (The Sunday Mirror, 8/2), the government- controlled Press simply carried Chidyausiku's ruling without questioning its profound implications on the media landscape.

ZBC (5/2, 8pm) was even worse. The government-controlled public broadcaster ignored the ruling altogether. It only reported that the Supreme Court had reserved judgement in a case in which the MIC was seeking an interdict barring the publishers of The Daily News, the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), from operating pending finalisation of the consolidated appeals on February 18. The case was heard the same day as that of IJAZ. Such calculated manipulation of important news resulted in the government-controlled media censoring the views of Zimbabwe's "most experienced" Supreme Court judge, Justice Wilson Sandura, who disagreed with his fellow judges over the mandatory accreditation and punishment of journalists under AIPPA.

His dissenting judgement was only given space by the private media such as Studio 7 (05/02), The Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe Independent (6/2) and The Standard (8/2). For example, The Zimbabwe Independent reported Sandura as saying the mandatory accreditation of journalists was undemocratic because it violated Section 20 of the Constitution, which guarantees citizens, freedom of expression, which is "a cornerstone upon which the very existence of a democratic society rests". The practice of journalism, Sandura argued, was nothing less than the regular exercise of one's right to freedom of expression and thus could not be separated from that right. He argued that since the accreditation of journalists by MIC under Section 79 of AIPPA was subject to approval by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and his secretary, George Charamba, this translated into a restrictive measure as compared to a "mere formality" otherwise "why would it need the minister's approval?"

The judge dismissed Minister Moyo's claim (as first respondent) that the main objective of accreditation was to ensure accountability and easy access to events by journalists noting, ". the legislative objective given is not sufficiently important to justify limiting freedom of expression". This contrasted with comments attributed to Chidyausiku in the same paper dismissing as "misconceived" the suggestion that the MIC was "sufficiently not independent" of Moyo. Besides censoring Sandura's opinion on the matter, The Sunday Mail

(8/2) displayed its intolerance to alternative views by attacking the integrity of the judge for his dissenting observations in its 'Under the Surface' column. Using vitriolic language laced with racial bigotry, the paper described Sandura as "a snake in the house.with stinking colonial ideas.that would one day.strike while we concentrate on pressing issues and it would be too late to hit its poisonous head". The column likened Sandura to former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, whom government hounded out of the Supreme Court because of his principled stand on government's controversial land reforms and the rule of law.

It noted that "this Gubbay residue (Sandura)" was more dangerous because "it has the colour that we can identify with and speaks our mother language". Notably, the paper unwittingly exposed what civic society has always suspected- that government has seriously compromised the effective delivery of justice by forcing out judges who are perceived to be anti-government and packing the courts with its sympathisers. As if to illustrate this, The Weekend Tribune (7/2) refreshed readers' memories about how Administrative Court President, Judge Michael Majuru, was forced out of his job for taking "the proper, unbiased application and interpretation of the law and administration of justice rather than come up with a judgment tailor-made to suit political considerations as seen through government eyes" in the ANZ/MIC legal battle.

It was referring to events that followed Justice Majuru's ruling in October last year that the MIC was biased against the Daily News and was improperly constituted. He also ordered that the ANZ be granted a licence to operate. The government media, however, remained reluctant to expose such interference in the delivery of justice or to examine the effects this might have had on the IJAZ challenge. Rather, they appeared to complement government efforts to muzzle the private media, especially by campaigning for the continued shutdown of The Daily News, as exemplified by The Herald's obsession (3/2) with depicting the private daily as still peddling "lies". The paper wished for the daily's demise suggesting, "It is a fact that Zimbabwe would be better off without the vindictive tabloid." Further, The Herald and Chronicle (7/2) implied that The Daily News reporters had "downed tools" until they got accreditation from MIC instead of stating unequivocally that the disappearance of the paper from the streets was a result of the Supreme Court ruling on the requirements of accreditation. While the government-controlled media appeared to support this grave erosion of democratic space in the country, the private media was steadfast in exposing it.

The Zimbabwe Independent, for example, predicted that the Supreme Court judgement was "likely to a have a chilling effect on the practice of journalism and provides the government with the weapon it needs to deal with dissent in the independent Press". The Standard comment (8/2) likened Chidyausiku's judgement to a backward leap "in our struggle for a full-blown democracy", similar to the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence declared by Ian Smith.

In addition to using repressive legislation to gag the independent media, government also sought to further erode the people's freedom to communicate by drafting new regulations governing the operations of the telecommunications industry. The regulations sought to outlaw the use of Econet Wireless (whose major shareholder, Strive Masiyiwa, also controls the ANZ) as a 'gateway' to international satellite telecommunications, leaving the government controlled TelOne as the sole provider of international connections.

In fact, The Herald had sounded a warning on Christmas Eve when it reported that government was likely to withdraw Econet's operating licence because it was allegedly not remitting its foreign currency earnings, which "were being used to finance subversive activities to undermine the government of Zimbabwe".

In reporting the matter, ZBC (2/2, 8pm) omitted to examine the underlying implications of such a move to freedom of expression. Instead, ZTV blindly presented the developments as part of government's plans to "restore order" in "the telecommunications sector, which had become chaotic" and linked the move to Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono's monetary policy. However, SW Radio Africa (04/02) was more astute. It quoted a Media Institute of Southern Africa spokesman pointing out that that the regulations would "stifle the rights of the people to receive and impart information."

Earlier, The Daily News (4/2) reported that the High Court had declared government's latest decision " . null, void and of no effect to the applicant (Econet)." This followed an urgent application filed by Econet contesting the move. However, the paper (3/2) failed to fully probe the political connotations behind government's action although it cited "last week's State media reports" as saying government had realised that "several telecommunications companies", including Econet, were providing satellite services through third parties which had serious implications for the country's security and was "prejudicing the fiscus of much needed currency".

The Herald (4/2) also reported the outcome of the court case. The next day the paper (5/2) unquestioningly announced government's plans to circumvent the High Court by "instituting necessary amendments in order for the Government decision on the single international operator to be implemented".

The paper quoted former Communications Minister Witness Mangwende saying although his ministry "respects the decision of the High Court .the country could not afford to duplicate infrastructure when only one international gateway could suffice." Once again ZBC ignored the court's nullification of the regulations altogether. But what was even more remarkable in the coverage of the issue was the omission by all media of the fact that Econet had on January 30 received a fax from government at about 6.45pm giving the company a five-hour notice to "cease to operate", The Mail and Guardian (5/2).

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