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Journalists shrug off Government's media straitjacket
Tafi Murinzi, IPS
January 19, 2005

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=27096

BULAWAYO - Media rights watchdogs have long criticised the conditions under which journalists in Zimbabwe operate. Since the start of the year, however, the circumstances of the country’s media have become bleaker still.

Earlier this month, President Robert Mugabe signed into law amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

This law, passed in March 2002, requires journalists to obtain accreditation from a government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) – something widely viewed as an attempt by authorities to clamp down on the activities of the independent press. In terms of the latest amendments to AIPPA, reporters who are caught working without accreditation may be imprisoned for up to two years.

Newspapers and publishers are also required to register with the MIC.

The tightening of media restrictions appears to have been greeted with a certain amount of sang-froid in Zimbabwe.

"There has emerged a culture of acceptance of the repressive nature of the media law, and people don’t make too much of a fuss about it anymore," says Takura Zhangazha of the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa. "Everybody wants to do their business in as quiet a way as possible and not draw attention from the MIC."

Other reporters have simply decided to disregard the amendments.

"For me accreditation’s one thing I said I’m not going to bother about," a freelancer told IPS, noting that – if nothing else – registration is prohibitively expensive. Reporters who work for foreign media have to pay the MIC fees of about 800 United States dollars.

Adds the freelancer, "One needs to look at what’s going on with Jonathan (Moyo). If he goes, things might improve."

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has become the nemesis of reporters in Zimbabwe since 2000, when the ruling ZANU-PF party won parliamentary elections that were characterised by intimidation and violence, much of this directed against the opposition.

Considered one of the driving forces behind efforts to gag foreign reporters and the privately-owned media in Zimbabwe – both highly critical of the Mugabe administration – the pugnacious Moyo now seems on the verge of losing his position as government’s chief apologist.

Along with several other members of ZANU-PF, he has been excluded from running in parliamentary elections that are scheduled to be held by the end of March. This came after Moyo bypassed party procedures by holding an un-sanctioned meeting to select candidates for key posts in ZANU-PF.

Vincent Kahiya, editor of The Zimbabwe Independent – one of three privately-owned weeklies – is less optimistic about the consequences of Moyo’s possible demise.

"It’s not like the departure of Moyo would see the government repealing or amending the laws," he says. "The laws will stay on the statute books as long as they are useful to the ruling order."

A magistrate’s court recently dropped charges against Kahiya and three staffers who had been accused of defaming the president and his government. The case arose out of a report carried by The Zimbabwe Independent early last year which alleged that Mugabe had commandeered a plane from the state airline to travel to Switzerland, where he attended an international summit.

In one of the latest spats between the MIC and Zimbabwe’s media, a new weekly fell foul of the commission this month after publishing only one issue.

According to the MIC, The Weekly Times misrepresented its editorial policy in order to get an operating licence. The commission claimed that while the paper had undertaken to concentrate on "developmental issues" and "general news", it ultimately showed itself to be "political commentary through and through".

The Weekly Times was given a week to explain why its licence should not be suspended or revoked.

Moves to restrict the activities of journalists have drawn criticism abroad.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher noted that the AIPPA amendments are inconsistent with election guidelines adopted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in August last year. Zimbabwe is a member of SADC.

"The steps raise serious doubts about whether the government is committed to holding free and fair parliamentary elections in March," Boucher said recently during a press briefing in the American capital, Washington.

In the wake of the violence and human rights abuse that preceded the 2000 parliamentary and 2002 presidential polls, the U.S. joined the European Union in imposing sanctions on Mugabe and other key members of government.

The SADC electoral code, agreed on during a summit of regional leaders in Mauritius, stipulates that all political parties should have access to state media during election campaigns, and that they should be allowed to operate in a climate free of violence and intimidation. The code also requires polls to be managed by impartial institutions.

While SADC has yet to issue its verdict on the latest media restrictions to be implemented in Zimbabwe, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa noted this week that Harare’s treatment of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was not in line with regional standards.

This appeared to constitute a departure from the ANC’s previous position: the party has generally refrained from criticising Zimbabwe’s government, saying political upheaval in the country can best be dealt with through low-key, diplomatic interventions.

Since the start of 2000, Zimbabwe has also witnessed occupations of white-owned farms by veterans of the country’s war of independence and other pro-government militants.

These occupations were initially described as a bid to correct racial imbalances in land ownership that had their roots in colonialism. However, certain political observers have claimed that ZANU-PF orchestrated the farm invasions to gain support ahead of parliamentary elections in 2000, when it faced its first credible challenge from an opposition party – the MDC.

Political uncertainty and disturbances in the agricultural sector, combined with a costly involvement in the Congolese civil war, have sparked economic decline in Zimbabwe. Inflation hovers in the triple digits, while unemployment in the country is rife.

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