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MIC - An instrument for muzzling alternative sources of information
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-2
Monday January 10^th – Sunday January 16^th 2005

THE impression that the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) is serving as an instrument for muzzling alternative sources of information was reinforced in the week under review by recent reports of its threats to close the newly established Weekly Times under the guise of upholding AIPPA.

According to The Financial Gazette (13/1) MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso wrote to the paper threatening to suspend or cancel the privately owned paper’s licence because the publishers had allegedly misled the commission about their "true intentions in setting up the Weekly Times". Mahoso alleged that the paper had pledged to "spearhead development" and "cover general news" but was now "running political commentary through and through" while making "no attempt at impartial reporting".

The Zimbabwe Independent (14/1) also carried the story.

But, as the Gazette noted, Mahoso’s threats are not a new phenomenon in the country’s media landscape.

The Daily News and its sister weekly, The Daily News on Sunday, were both shut down in September 2003 under AIPPA. The Tribune met the same fate in July 2004. If the MIC fulfils its threat against The Weekly Times, the paper will become the fourth publication to fall prey to the draconian media law in 16 months.

Besides the closure of papers, many journalists working for the private media have been arrested and charged with breaching a variety of harsh security and media laws.

Notably, during the week, the courts removed from remand four Zimbabwe Independent journalists after the State failed to establish a case against them. The journalists were on remand for almost a year charged under old criminal defamation laws for allegedly defaming President Mugabe in a story in which the paper said the President had "commandeered" an Air Zimbabwe plane for a trip to the Far East in 2003. The Herald (11/1), which was among the government media that prominently carried the Minister of Information’s angry denial at the time, did at least inform its readers of this development. But ZTV didn’t bother in the bulletins monitored.

The authorities continue to use these laws to intimidate and silence the private media but ignore many cases of unethical journalistic practice committed by government-controlled media organisations.

Such selective application of these laws clearly indicates government’s underlying intention for promulgating such patently repressive legislation that have no place in the statutes of a country that claims to be a democracy.

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