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Journalist acquitted under AIPPA
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-32
Monday August 22^nd – Sunday August 28^th 2005

AS this report was going to print, The Daily Mirror (1/9) revealed that one of the many targets of the country’s repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), former Daily News reporter Kelvin Jakachira, had been acquitted of practising journalism illegally by Magistrate Priscilla Chigumba.

Jakachira was facing charges of violating sections of AIPPA by practicing without a licence. The private daily noted that his acquittal could be used as a test case for 45 other journalists from the banned Daily News who are facing similar charges.

Although The Daily Mirror reported this important piece of news, which was ignored by the government media, it carried the issue as a mere announcement without providing information about the basis for his acquittal.

But the report mirrored the general reticence of the media on the matter. None of them have diligently followed up on Jakachira’s trial. In fact, since The Herald (12/8) announced the beginning of the trial at the Harare Magistrates’ Court, there has not been any report on the issue.

It was only those with the privilege of accessing online publications that got to know Chigumba’s reasons for acquitting Jakachira. For instance, a statement by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that Chigumba had found that Jakachira had complied with AIPPA. The magistrate noted that Jakachira had applied for accreditation but had received no response from the government-appointed Media and Information Commission and that under the law the former Daily News reporter was entitled to work while awaiting the outcome of his application.

Jakachira’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told CPJ that the ruling could benefit other Daily News journalists facing similar charges because their applications for accreditation were "sent together" and the evidence was "more or less the same".

While the Media Monitoring Project hails the defeat of this latest attempt to persecute and criminalize journalists under the repressive provisions of AIPPA, the failure of the media to adequately cover an issue that affects people’s basic freedoms, is a clear dereliction of journalistic practice.

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