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Time to reflect and take stocks
Nyasha Nyakunu, MISA-Zimbabwe
Extracted from the Monthly Media Alerts Digest March 2005
April 12, 2005

As Zimbabwe gears to celebrate its 25 years of independence on 18 April in the aftermath of the just ended March 2005 parliamentary elections, there is compelling need for the country to take stock of its democratic values and aspirations.

The silver jubilee celebrations will be held under the theme, Celebrating 25 Years of Independence and Democracy.

Twenty-five years of independence for a former British colony, is indeed an irreversible milestone in the history of any nation. However, the question that begs for sober reflection is whether celebrating independence equates to celebrating democracy.

Huge amounts of taxpayers’ money will be poured into the grandiose celebrations in the middle of runaway inflation, 80 percent unemployment, growing poverty and HIV and Aids.

It sounds discordant to be celebrating independence and democracy in an environment where four privately-owned newspapers which served as alternative sources of information where closed in terms of an Act which has been condemned locally, regionally and internationally as an impediment to media freedom.

In raising these issues we are of course mindful of the fact that every nation with a strong collective national conscience and sense of where it came from is mandated to commemorate the day it attained self-rule.

What is important though is to ensure that the celebrations are held within the reflective context of the country’s socio-economic decline and the corrective measures that can be taken to stem the downward spiral.

The media no doubt played an important role in highlighting and shaping the ideologies, policies and course of events that define us as Zimbabweans 25 years after independence.

Because of the media’s vital role in that regard, it behoves us as a nation to reflect on what Zimbabwe’s aspirations where at independence as we celebrate 25 years of self-rule.

At independence, Zimbabwe was re-admitted into the community of nations as an independent and democratic nation determined to assert its position in global politics and economics.

By immediately joining these international groupings, Zimbabwe was undoubtedly determined to be accepted into the fold as a country prepared to embrace the principles of a democratic government that respects, media freedom, freedom of expression, assembly and association.

It is in that vein that the country adopted and ratified several regional and international conventions and charters which uphold the basic principles of democracy and good governance.

Zimbabwe is therefore bound by its own Constitution and international treaties to observe and ensure the protection of the right to freedom of expression and inevitably that of the media.

Censorship and harassment of the media were central to the Rhodesia Front’s political survival prior to independence in 1980.

Where the RF relied on the Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA), present day Zimbabwe hinges its regulation of the media industry on the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Ironically, POSA retains word for word some of the draconian clauses of LOMA.

These laws have been criticised as contradicting the democratic aspirations of Zimbabwe in terms of the conventions it has ratified which seek to protect the norms and principles of the citizens’ right to freedom of expression.

It is hoped that as the reality of the prevailing socio-economic and political environment manifests in the aftermath of the "election victory parties" and independence celebrations, the next parliament and indeed the nation at large, will take time to reflect on where we want to be as a nation.

This entails, among other issues, revisting our media laws to gauge whether there is indeed merit in the agitations for media law reforms.

The envisaged reforms will enable the media to play a much more meaningful and unfettered role in diagnosing and identifying the cure to the country's socio-economic ills.

Only, and only then, will Zimbabwe be able to re-align itself with its founding principles and aspirations of attaining greater prosperity as a nation which respects media freedom, freedom of expression, assembly and movement as basic human freedoms.

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