Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

MISA statement to the 47th ordinary session of the ACHPR
MISA-Zimbabwe
May 24, 2010

Madam Chairperson, Commissioners, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. The Media Institute of Southern Africa's Zimbabwean Chapter (MISA-Zimbabwe) would like to thank the Commissioners for affording us the time to make this statement. In Zimbabwe, the right to freedom of expression, access to information and the overall state of the media in Zimbabwe is yet to improve.

Whilst MISA-Zimbabwe commends the governments' effort and work towards functionalising the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) as the licensing authority, there is no guarantee that this will usher media diversity and freedom. This is because the commission stands to operate and exercise its mandate under the same repressive legislative framework that has decimated the media environment in the last decade. To be precise, the restrictive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, whose provisions the ZM has since declared undemocratic and in contravention of the African Charter and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, will still be used to register and regulate the media. This will simply see the perpetuation of the systematic assault on freedom of the media and expression as well as citizenry's right to access information under the guise of reform.

Furthermore, there has been slow progress in liberalizing the broadcasting sector, which is dominated by the government-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), 10 years after the Supreme Court revoked its broadcasting monopoly. The Broadcasting Services Act imposes stringent requirements for establishing private broadcasting stations thereby ensuring that ZBC's broadcasting monopoly remains unchallenged.

The year 2010 has seen the continuation arrests and harassment of journalists, which is inimical to democracy and Zimbabweans' constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. Between January and April 2010, seven cases of harassment and arrests of journalists and media practitioners were recorded; in 2009 the number of arrests stood at nine, throughout the year. Freelance journalist, Stanley Kwenda in January this year fled the country following alleged death threats by a senior police officer; freelance photojournalist Andrison Manyere continues to be to be harassed in the course of his work; and recently five journalists were investigated and subpoenaed under the undemocratic criminal defamation laws for exposing alleged cases of corruption by public officials. All these incidents are pointers to Zimbabwe's failure to comply with the African Commission's Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, which places strict guidelines on laws on defamation.

The Government of Zimbabwe is also yet to comply with this Commission's 2009 ruling that sections 79 & 80 of AIPPA are incompatible with Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and should be repealed, and that Zimbabwe should adopt legislation that provides a framework for self- regulation of the media.

There has thus been no meaningful progress towards the realisation of the envisaged media reforms since the signing of the Global Political Agreement on 15 September, 2008. MISA-Zimbabwe therefore calls upon the Commission to:

• Urge the government of Zimbabwe to prioritise the institution of comprehensive media reforms that will facilitate the establishment of a transparent and democratic media regulating mechanism, foster and protect media diversity and the free flow of information.
• Urge the government of Zimbabwe to repeal all repressive legislation, and replace these with democratic legislation that is in tandem with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Banjul Declaration on the Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa.
• Urge the government of Zimbabwe to guarantee the safety and freedom of journalism and ensure that they conduct their work free from threats, harassment, intimidation and arrests.
• Remind the government of Zimbabwe that self-regulation is the best way of safeguarding the media's fourth estate role.

Visit the MISA-Zimbabwe fact sheet

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