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High
Court rules against media abuse
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-30
Monday July 26th – Sunday August 1st 2004
THE MMPZ welcomes
the recent High Court ruling by Justice Yunus Omerjee against Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo, Zimpapers (Pvt) Ltd and columnist Nathaniel
Manheru for defaming the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ),
the publishers of the defunct Daily News, in articles published
in The Herald of on May 17, June 3, 10, 14, 15 and 18 2003.
We believe the
judgment vindicates widely held perceptions that of late some top
public officials and journalists have been abusing the government
media to perpetuate hate speech aimed at tainting perceived government
opponents under the guise of journalism.
This kind of
media abuse goes against internationally guaranteed standards of
freedom of expression, as well as generally accepted standards of
ethical journalistic practice.
However, despite
Justice Omerjee’s ruling, The Sunday Mail’s columnist Lowani
Ndlovu would not relent in using the Zimpapers weekly as a platform
to crudely discredit perceived government opponents.
Besides describing
those who welcomed the ruling as "running dogs (of neo-colonialists)
and media charlatans", Ndlovu sought to question the
professional integrity of Justice Omerjee saying he had "earlier
this year made two controversial judgments in favour of Strive Masiyiwa",
adding that his recent ruling was driven by "an
inexplicable desire to protect one Masiyiwa". Masiyiwa
is the majority shareholder in ANZ.
Conveniently
ignoring the fact that such comments, as pointed out by The Daily
Mirror (3/8) border on contempt of court, Ndlovu then
called on government controlled media houses to use Justice Omerjee’s
ruling as a precedent and sue the Media Monitoring Project, the
Standard, Financial Gazette and Zimbabwe Independent.
He argued that these "have sought to lower the esteem
of public media companies by claiming that they are either manipulated
or controlled by politicians or by Government outside normal company
procedures".
For the record,
the MMPZ’s mission is to monitor the Zimbabwean media to determine
how far they adhere to constitutionally and internationally guaranteed
standards of freedom of expression, as well as generally accepted
standards of ethical journalistic practice.
Visit the MMPZ
fact sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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