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World
Press Freedom Day May 3 2004
MISA-Zimbabwe
May 03, 2004
"Respect
my right to hear and be heard"
Media organisations
in Zimbabwe commemorate with the rest of the world, the World Press
Freedom day held every May 3 annually, in a media environment that
can best be described as anarchic.
The past four
years have seen some of the worst media and freedom of expression
violations being perpetrated on journalists both in the private
and public sector and on ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe. The closure
of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday is one of the worst
and sad developments in independent Zimbabwe. The closure left hundreds
of workers unemployed and hundreds of families without any income
and millions of readers without their favorite paper. Laws such
as the Public Order and Security Act, (POSA), have been used to
trample our constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression.
We have seen workers under the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
and organisations such as the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
being arrested for holding peaceful marches to press for certain
changes.
The repression
targeting the media and the suppression of peaceful marches and
assembly has meant that all forms of expression have been curtailed
in Zimbabwe. The state media has equally been under pressure as
it is used for propaganda purposes by the Department of Information
and Publicity.
Journalists
working for the state media have to toe the line or face dismissal.
Indeed those who display any semblance of professionalism and independent
thinking have been dismissed. We take this time to remind Zimbabweans
that freedom of expression and that of the media cannot be separated.
We remind the nation that it is everyone's duty to fight for the
restoration of our rights to hear and be heard. Zimbabweans must
know that:
- The Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) is an undemocratic
law that has been used selectively to target private media journalists
and media houses.
- That the
public media that is owned by every Zimbabwean is being abused
as no one with different views from the ruling party is given
access to the ZBC, or The Herald and Sunday Mail.
- That the
country needs more independent newspapers, radio and TV stations.
- That everyone
has a right to be heard and receive information without any hindrance.
- We express
concern over violations of freedom of expression rights that have
resulted in peaceful marches being broken up on the basis that
one needs police approval to peacefully march or demonstrate.
- We express
our abhorrence and disapproval of statements by the Minister of
Information Professor Jonathan Moyo that press freedom cannot
be equated to freedom of expression. We say that the media are
tools used to exercise freedom of expression hence cannot be separated
from the inalienable right to freedom of expression.
The undersigned
organisations take this time to appeal to the government to revisit
such laws as AIPPA, POSA, BSA and many other colonial laws still
in our statutes books. A free Zimbabwe must show all aspects of
a free nation and not borrow from the colonial past in its attitude
towards the media.
Signed
Independent
Journalists Association of Zimbabwe
Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
Media
Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists
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-Zimbabwe fact
sheet
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