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Statement on the all stakeholders media law reforms conference
Media Alliance of Zimbabwe
December 05, 2008

An all-stakeholders conference on media policy and legislative reforms ended in Harare on 5 December 2008 with a firm and unequivocal resolve by delegates drawn from throughout the country not to support nor accept nominations to the proposed statutory Zimbabwe Media Commission which retained statutory regulation of the media following the 2007 amendments to the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)

Guided by the principles on freedom of expression and access to information enshrined under the Banjul Declaration of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, Windhoek Declaration and African Charter on Broadcasting, delegates also called for a constitutional provision that explicitly guarantees media freedom and the repealing of repressive laws such as AIPPA, Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

More than 100 journalists and representatives of civic society organisations who attended the two-day conference organised by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) vowed to defend media freedom through the principle of self-regulation as stipulated under the Banjul Declaration on the Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa. Noting that statutory regulation curtails media freedom and the fundamental right to access to information, the conference called for the enactment of democratic legislation that is in tandem with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Delegates affirmed that the media should voluntarily regulate itself through democratic, transparent and publicly legitimate media bodies such as the Voluntary Media Council endorsed and established by journalists in June 2007 under the auspices of MAZ.

The conference resolved to push for the transformation of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) into a truly independent public service broadcaster and the establishment of independent regulatory bodies appointed through a transparent public process with the endorsement of Parliament.

The conference held under the theme, The Media We Want . . . Free, Fair and Open, was convened to forge a common strategy of coming up with a comprehensive alternative policy and legislative framework to entrench media freedom and freedom of expression in Zimbabwe.

MAZ comprises MISA-Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) and Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (ZiNEF).

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