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Alternative
sources of information further eroded
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Media Weekly Update 2004-23
Monday June 7th – Sunday June 13th 2004
ZIMBABWEANS’
right to access alternative sources of information was further eroded
during the week following the closure of the privately owned Tribune
newspaper by the government appointed Media and Information Commission
(MIC) on June 10 for allegedly violating sections of the grossly
repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).
The MIC accused the publishers of the paper, Africa Tribune Newspapers
(ATN), of not notifying the commission of material changes such
as change of ownership, the masthead, trade name and title of the
paper as required under section 67 of AIPPA. MIC also cited the
hiring of an unaccredited journalist, Bekithemba Mhlanga, as another
reason for canceling the paper’s licence (The Tribune, Zimbabwe
Independent and Herald, 11/6). Notably,
ZBC (10/6) ignored the story.
As MMPZ and
MISA pointed out in their joint press release on June 11, the MIC
edict flies in the face of the Commission’s own mandate to promote
and protect unhindered access to information. Instead of helping
to foster the development of the media and promoting the free flow
of information, MIC is busy curtailing any critical discourse in
Zimbabwean society using absurdly harsh penalties relating to essentially
minor administrative offences provided for under AIPPA. The latest
muzzling of one of the few remaining alternative sources of information
in Zimbabwe once again clearly illustrates government’s underlying
intention for introducing this legislation.
This view is
further reinforced by MIC’s apparent reluctance to reprimand government
media, whose journalists continue to violate basic professional
standards with impunity.
A recent example
is the Chronicle story (10/6), Lawyer in anti-Govt crusade.
The paper claimed that former legal officer for the Associated Newspapers
of Zimbabwe, Gugulethu Moyo, had called on the international community
to exert more pressure on Zimbabwe "even if it means
taking the Saddam route". The paper reported Moyo as
telling the Southern African Editor’s Forum meeting in Namibia,
"I know it’s unthinkable to talk of war as buildings
will be destroyed while thousands of people will die – but nothing
else will work for Zimbabwe right now. There is need for a complete
re-start".
However, The
Standard (13/6) later quoted Moyo alleging that the Chronicle
story was substantially false and distorted. The privately owned
weekly quoted Moyo saying all comments attributed to her by the
Chronicle were "either fictitious or inaccurate"
because she neither suggested any "military intervention
in Zimbabwe" nor mentioned the name of (former Iraqi
despot) Saddam Hussein. Said Moyo: "For Stephen Ndlovu
(Chronicle editor and author of the story) to attribute a statement
that suggests that if there was war in Zimbabwe I would be concerned
about buildings being destroyed and not the loss of life is the
height of slander".
MIC’s silence
on such distortions and misrepresentation of issues clearly reinforces
an earlier court decision relating to the partisan nature of the
commission and vindicates independent media institutions’ call for
its dissolution and its replacement with a truly independent and
self-regulatory body.
Visit the MMPZ
fact sheet
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