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Press Freedom in Zimbabwe
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-15
Monday April 25th - May 1st 2005

WHILE the democratic world commemorated World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, there was very little cause for celebration in Zimbabwe. Repressive media and security laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and Public Order and Security Act (POSA) are still on Zimbabwe's statute books and have continued to be selectively used against media practitioners, particularly journalists working for the private media.

Since their enactment, dozens of journalists from the private media have been charged under the two draconian laws although not a single prosecution has been successful. Private media houses have also borne the brunt of these undemocratic laws. For instance, four privately owned newspapers have been closed under AIPPA in the last 19 months as part of the authorities' systematic campaign to silence all sources of information critical of their policies and actions. Scores of journalists working for the affected media houses have consequently been deprived of their jobs following the closures.

The broadcasting environment remains equally restrictive. Despite the invalidation of the ZBH's broadcasting monopoly by the Supreme Court in

2000, the government-controlled broadcaster still enjoys a de-facto monopoly of the airwaves. This is because almost five years after the Supreme Court ruling no other private broadcasters have been licenced as the restrictive clauses of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) have made it difficult for the majority of Zimbabweans to establish their own commercial and community radio stations. In fact, this was fully exposed when The Herald (29/4) and The Sunday Mirror

(1/5) reported that only one out of the five organisations that had applied for broadcasting licences had been short listed by the government appointed Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to attend a public enquiry as stipulated under the BSA.

The Herald quoted BAZ acting chairman Pikirayi Deketeke saying the unsuccessful applicants had failed to meet the requirements of the law without elaborating save to say that the authority would write to the applicants explaining the "reasons why their applications were turned down".

It is such restrictive media environment that has seen the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) name Zimbabwe as one of the "World's Worst Places to Be as a Journalist", The Standard (1/5). The government-controlled media ignored the CPJ report.

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