Back to Index

World Press Freedom Day statement
Media Alliance of Zimbabwe
May 02, 2006

On May 3, the World commemorates Press Freedom Day. It is a day when the world reflects on the importance of freedom of expression and in particular media freedom as a fundamental right which is necessary for the protection of other human rights.

Sadly for Zimbabwe, the past seven years have seen freedom of expression being downgraded from a right to a privilege that can only be exercised at the benevolence of the authorities.

It is disheartening to note that Zimbabwe has failed to learn from its past history of segregation, subjugation and repression of dissenting and alternative voices with regard to media freedom.

Laws such as AIPPA, POSA and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), among others, severely curtail the public’s constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression and the related right to freedom of assembly and association which underpin democratic practices.

It is sad that 26 years after independence, the media in Zimbabwe and indeed the majority of Zimbabwe’s citizens are not free to speak their mind without being accused of either selling out or compromising the country’s national interests and sovereignty.

Ironically, in Rhodesia, authorities talked of "observing the laws of the land". Among such laws was LOMA reincarnated as POSA.

The colonial government viewed LOMA as a constitutional law designed to protect the "sovereignty" and "national interests of Rhodesia" hence the use of these laws to suppress alternative voices.

In independent Zimbabwe free speech and media freedom has been criminalised through AIPPA and POSA resulting in the closure of The Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune and The Weekly Times.

We also note with concern the failure by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe to license private commercial and community broadcasters to enhance diversity and plurality of ideas.

While we accept the principle of regulating the media, we, however, abhor statutory regulation by a Commission handpicked by the government as stipulated under AIPPA.

We feel that the ethics of the journalism profession should like those governing other independently regulated professions be retained to their rightful custodians i.e. media practitioners and relevant stakeholders represented by civic groups.

This will help regulate the media in the public interest.

However, on May 3 2006 media workers in Zimbabwe are the worse off following the introduction of statutory regulation which has adversely affected the development of the media industry resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Zimbabwe lags behind the rest of the region in terms of the number of radio and television stations, newspapers and magazines that one can access. This has resulted in the media’s failure to meaningfully contribute to national development.

It is for this reason that journalists from both the public and private media have seen it important to come up with an Independent Media Council. This will be the first step towards reclaiming the media from statutory bodies such as the MIC.

An independent media council is an acknowledgement and acceptance by the media industry, that it has an obligation to be ethical while maintaining good relations with its readership.

We therefore call on the government, members of the public and other stakeholders to stand up for the right to freedom of expression and support the independent media council initiative.

This initiative, we hope, will ensure that in the not so distant future, Zimbabwe will finally make its break with Rhodesia.

Inserted by:

ZUJ
MISA-Zimbabwe
ZINEF
MMPZ

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP