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Swedish
ambassador attacks Zimbabwe's press laws
ZimOnline
April 03, 2006
http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=11902
BULAWAYO – Swedish
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Sten Rylander has rejected comparisons by
a state media body suggesting Zimbabwe’s tough press laws were modeled
along Sweden’s media legislation.
Addressing students
at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe’s
second biggest city of Bulawayo at the weekend, Rylander said Zimbabwe’s
media laws cannot be compared with Sweden’s since Sweden "has
an admired tradition of freedom of the press in the world."
"In Sweden,
the objectives of the media policy are clearly formulated. The aim
of media policy is to support freedom of expression, diversity and
the independence of and accessibility to mass media.
"There
has never been an agenda in Sweden to shut down newspapers, big
or small, because they cannot raise the required capital to publish
nor for the simple reason that they have changed their shareholding
structures without informing government," Rylander said.
The Harare authorities
have often cited Sweden’s press laws to justify its much criticized
Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which has
been used to shut down four newspapers over the past three years.
But the Swedish
ambassador said "the source of this lurid comparison remains
unclear." Ryder also said there was no legitimate reason for
the continued ban of the Daily News and its sister paper the Daily
News on Sunday after the paper complied with the law.
The Daily News
and the Daily News on Sunday, including two other privately-owned
newspapers, were shut down over the past three years for violating
certain sections of AIPPA.
The World Association
of Newspapers ranks Zimbabwe among the three worst countries for
journalists. The other two are the former Soviet Republic of Uzbeskistan
and the Islamic republic of Iran. - ZimOnline
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