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The working environment of the Zimbabwean media
MISA-Zimbabwe
Extracted from Report on International conference on media support strategies for Zimbabwe
November 30, 2005

http://www.i-m-s.dk/Media/PDF/Zimbabwe

Reports of harassment and assault of Zimbabwean journalists have markedly declined in the last three years. At least, if compared to the period leading up to and during the 2000 and 2002 parliamentary and presidential elections, when the Zimbabwean media came under perhaps its most intense bludgeoning in the country’s torrid history of media suppression.

The decline in cases of media freedom violations coincides with the closure of the Daily News, which – as the main masscirculation competition to the state-controlled media – bore the brunt of attacks against journalists and the media they worked for from 2000-2002. The post-2002 period has seen many of the country’s most experienced media workers leave the country, with the Committee to Project Journalists reporting that at least 90 journalists now live outside Zimbabwe, "making it one of the largest groups of exiled journalists in the world"¹. Their flight followed the enactment of laws that formalised much of the harassment that preceded them, legislation that all-but muzzled diverse and critical views, both within and beyond the media (See the section on ‘Media Laws in Zimbabwe’ in this document).

From law suits to bombs
Following a decade of post-independence media hegemony, the authorities responded to the gradual emergence of privatelyowned newspapers during the 1990s by dusting off laws inherited from the colonial era, and using these against those who overstepped the mark in terms of what was considered acceptable to print.

This period of legal and verbal jousting was jolted when, two months after the government’s plans to introduce a new constitution were defeated in a referendum, a bomb exploded at the offices of the Daily News in downtown Harare. A second, more powerful blast wrecked the paper’s printing press the following January. And a third bomb targeted the paper’s Bulawayo offices in February 2002. In August 2002, a bomb exploded in the Harare studio of the Voice of the People radio, which broadcasts locally produced programmes via a Radio Netherlands transmitter in Madagascar. No one has been charged with any of the bombings.

In between the bombs, several foreign correspondents and journalists were either deported or barred from entering Zimbabwe. Pro-ruling ZANU-PF militias seized numerous copies of private newspapers; journalists and readers of these papers were assaulted and detained, and the private press was effectively banned from circulating in ZANU-PF strongholds.

The government’s grip tightened on the government media, too, with scores of experienced journalists and broadcasters retrenched at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). Then information minister Jonathan Moyo replaced them with handpicked juniors. Those retrenched are still to receive their payouts, and a number have left the country. A few now work for exiled radio stations SW Radio Africa, which broadcasts from London, and Voice of America’s (VOA) Studio 7 in Washington.

War of words
The as-yet unidentified bombers aside, physical attacks on the media have, for the most part, been carried out by supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party and, to a lesser extent, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Politicians and government officials have goaded them on with hate speech and increasingly restrictive legislation. Journalists working for the private press have been referred to variously as agents of imperialism, sell-outs, enemies of the state and lapdogs of the former colonial master, Britain, bent on derailing the land reform programme. These verbal attacks have provided the context, and arguably the impetus, for the physical attacks.

Much of the vitriol has been carried through a media bereft of professional solidarity. As recently as November 3 2005, the government-run Herald newspaper published an article that referred to broadcasters and journalists John Matinde and Brenda Moyo, Sandra Nyaira, Tichaona Sibanda and Blessing Zulu - who are now working overseas - as "clowns and sell-outs" determined to advance the agenda of Western imperialist propaganda.

Setting the tone for what was to come, hundreds of war veterans and ruling ZANU PF supporters demonstrated against The Daily News in central Harare in January 2001. President Mugabe followed suit in December the same year, when he told church leaders that journalists who wrote "libellous reports" would be arrested:

Next it was the turn of now-retired commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, who told a press conference in Harare the following month:

Zvinavashe was responding to reports that the army had organised illegal farm seizures.

On September 5 2003, Minister Moyo lambasted the private press at the launch of New Ziana, a multi-media group charged with publishing government information, stating: "These papers are trash, and they injure our national interests."

These verbal attacks provide the background for the physical assaults on media workers and newspaper readers. For example, during a mass action called by the opposition in 2003, alleged ZANU-PF supporters beat readers of newspapers such as The Daily News, The Financial Gazette and The Zimbabwe Independent. Thousands of copies of these newspapers were destroyed during this period, in which war veterans and other pro-government militias "banned" the private press from certain areas of the country.

Those working for these newspapers were similarly harassed. Four Daily News staffers – Collin Chiwanza, Mduduzi Mathuthu (both reporters), Urginia Mauluka (photographer) and Trust Masola (driver) – were beaten up on November 31 2001. The four had visited the farm near Hwedza to report on attacks on farm workers by alleged ZANU PF supporters, and Police officers stood by as the journalists were likewise punched and kicked.

Legal harassment
Since March 2002, more than 80 media workers have been arrested or detained under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and other existing laws such as criminal defamation. In 2002 alone, 44 media practitioners were arrested, 13 in the first 10 weeks following the enactment of AIPPA. Only two of the 44 arrests in 2002 have yet resulted in a full trial. In six of the cases, the charges were withdrawn, while 22 of those arrested were released without charge. One journalist was deported, and 13 cases are still pending.

In some cases, journalists were detained over weekends, only to be released without charge. It is significant that not one journalist or editor working for the state media has so far been arrested or charged under these laws, although in many cases those media reported on the same stories that resulted in the arrest of journalists working for the private press.

On January 10 2004, for example, three journalists working for the Zimbabwe Independent were arrested and detained for two nights for a story alleging that President Robert Mugabe had commandeered an Air Zimbabwe jet to travel to the Far East. The three – Iden Wetherell (Publications Editor), Vincent Kahiya (News Editor) and Dumisani Muleya (Chief Reporter) – were each charged with criminal defamation and released on $20 000 bail.

On May 21 2004, Bornwell Chakaodza and Valentine Maponga, respectively editor and a reporter for The Standard, were arrested over a story in which relatives of a slain mine boss accused government officials of involvement in the murder. The state argued that the two had published false news that was likely to cause public disorder, incite public violence and endanger public safety. The state claimed that the relatives of the slain mine boss denied ever speaking to the paper. The police alleged the story was meant to tarnish the image of the government and charged the two under section 15 (1) of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Chakaodza and Maponga, however, insisted their story was true and that they could easily name the relatives they talked to. The charges were dropped on August 18 2005.

On April 23 2002, The Daily News carried a story alleging that two young girls had witnessed the beheading of their mother in the rural area of Magunje. According to the report, ZANU-PF cadres carried out the execution, the mother allegedly being a supporter of the opposition MDC. The story turned out to be untrue, and the paper published an apology on April 27 2002.

Andrew Meldrum, correspondent for the UK-based Guardian newspaper, was charged under section 80 of AIPPA on 20 June 2002 for abuse of journalistic privilege and, in particular, for publishing falsehoods, having reported the same ‘beheading’ story published in the Daily News. The High Court found Meldrum not guilty of publishing falsehoods with the intention of tarnishing the image of Zimbabwe as he had taken reasonable steps to verify the facts by contacting the police spokesman, who declined to comment on the allegations. After being acquitted, Meldrum was immediately served with a deportation order by immigration officials. The court suspended the order pending appeal, but Meldrum was deported nonetheless on May 16 2003.

From bombs to buy-outs
The ubiquity of this onslaught against the media has grown murkier with reports earlier this year that the country’s secret service, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), has acquired a controlling stake in the privately owned Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group, publishers of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror. Newspaper reports have linked two of the group’s shareholders – Unique World Investments and Zistanbal, which together own 70 per cent of the company – to the CIO. Central bank governor, Dr Gideon Gono, has a stake in Unique World Investments. (See section on ‘Media Ownership’ elsewhere in this document). Gono is also reported to be the owner of the weekly Financial Gazette through the paper’s main shareholder Octadew Investments.

If the reports are true, this leaves the Zimbabwe Standard and Zimbabwe Independent as the only newspapers in the country that are not controlled or linked to the state or members of the ruling party. This follows the closure of the Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, the Tribune and The Weekly Times, all of which fell foul of the licensing requirements of the Media and Information Commission (MIC) established by AIPPA.

The state continues to control the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust, which publishes the only remaining mass circulation newspapers in the country, the Herald and the Sunday Mail, together with a stable of local newspapers. It also controls all the country’s licensed broadcasters, which reside under the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH). The only indigenous alternatives to ZBH broadcasts are those radio stations broadcasting from outside the country - SW Radio Africa, which broadcasts from London, Voice of the People, which transmits via Radio Netherlands, and Studio 7, which is produced and broadcast by VOA. Several Internet news sites - such as NewZimbabwe.Com, ZimOnline and ZimNews – run by Zimbabweans based outside the country also endeavour to fill the information void.

Left with no other sources of income exacerbated by poor working conditions and remuneration, a number of unemployed and practicing journalists remaining in the country string for these news organisations in the Diaspora, as well as for foreign media. Freelancing locally is nigh impossible given the ever-shrinking media environment and the MIC’s stringent accreditation regime.

Accreditation/working conditions of journalists
Section 79 of AIPPA, states that the Media and Information Commission (MIC) may accredit journalists and issue press cards to those it has accredited. Accreditation is required annually. The Commission determines whether journalists are qualified to practice, although the MIC has not made public any criteria by which it assess journalists‘ qualifications. Therefore registration is left to discretion of the Commission, which is answerable to the Information minister. Anyone without MIC accreditation cannot practise as a journalist.

Daily News journalist Kelvin Jakachira was charged under AIPPA for practising journalism without accreditation. In his evidence, MIC Executive Chair Dr Tafataona Mahoso said he had rejected all applications for accreditation from journalists working for the Daily News and its sister titles. Mahoso said this was because the company was not registered with the MIC as required under AIPPA.

The magistrate, however, ruled that Jakachira submitted his application in time and had thus complied with the application procedures as stipulated under AIPPA. During the hearing, it transpired that the MIC, which is supposed to enjoy at least a modicum of autonomy, had the same postal address as the Office of the President. The courts still have to decide on the fate of eight other Daily News journalists who face similar charges. In the meantime, these eight struggle to find employment with registered media houses, as first they have to be accredited by the MIC before they can work. The alternative is for them to freelance, but this is risky, as they will be required to produce their accreditation cards when going about their work.

Veteran journalist Jonathan Maphenduka resigned from the MIC in August over what he described as the Commission’s illadvised decisions to close down four newspapers. "It must be obvious to all that the decisions of the Commission regarding those newspapers at this most opportune time is shorn of discretion and therefore ill advised and counter-productive," Maphenduka said in his resignation letter. The chances of these newspapers staging a comeback are unlikely given the partisan nature of the MIC.

Pay and conditions
If this was not enough to contend with, poor salaries, low levels of training and inadequate investment in technology beleaguer the media industry. Journalists working for the private press earn as little as Z$6,5 million (US$ 65 –100) a month in a hyperinflationary environment in which the average basket of food at a supermarket costs around Z$11 million². This affects morale within the media, and has an adverse effect on the quality of journalism. Most journalists prefer to sell their better, more investigative stories to foreign media houses, or else to receive "settlement fees" for protecting corrupt officials and business people from adverse publicity.

Like the media itself, associations and unions representing media workers are polarised, making it difficult to campaign for improved working conditions. Mathew Takaona, the president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), was fired as acting news editor of the government-controlled Sunday Mail after he addressed journalists from the Daily News.

Nonetheless, ZUJ is working towards setting up National Employment Council that will look into the working conditions of journalists with a view to standardising salaries and perks. Meanwhile, ZUJ, MISA-Zimbabwe, the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe and the National Editors Forum is pushing for the endorsement of national code of ethics that will pave way for the establishment of a voluntary, self-regulatory media council as a parallel force to the government-appointed MIC. Submissions have already been made to the Minister of Information and Publicity, and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications.

A glimmer of hope?
MISA-Zimbabwe will continue to pressure Parliament to revisit restrictive legislation such as AIPPA, POSA and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) with the view of having them amended or repealed. Parliamentary committees have produced reports critical of the broadcasting environment, particularly with regards the ZBH’s entrenched monopoly of the airwaves. Even government ministers recently argued that the BSA is not conducive to private investment in the broadcasting sector, and should be reviewed to allow the entry of private players.

Meanwhile, MISA-Zimbabwe together with the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe, have filed written submissions to the African Commission, arguing that AIPPA\contravenes the provisions of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. A hearing on the admissibility of this submission was due to be heard at the African Commission’s recent session in Banjul in November 2005.

However, with the enactment of more repressive laws around the corner, Zimbabwe’s democratic space is destined to shrink further. The measures being put in place suggest only one thing - worse times ahead for media freedom and freedom of expression in Zimbabwe.

*Nyasha Nyakuru is MISA-Zimbabwe’s Research and Information Officer

Visit the MISA-Zimbabwe fact sheet

1. P26 of Witchel E (2005): ‘Zimbabwe’s Exiled Press – Uprooted journalists struggle to keep careers, independent reporting alive', pp26-30 in the CPJ journal Dangerous Assignments, Fall / Winter 2005.
2.Consumer Council of Zimbabwe

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