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MMPZ condemns fresh attacks on the private media
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
October 12, 2012

MMPZ is disturbed by news of the arrest of Daily News editor Stanley Gama and his deputy Chris Goko on October 8th and NewsDay Mashonaland West correspondent Nunurai Jena during the weekend.

Gama and Goko were arrested on criminal defamation charges, while Jena was arrested for allegedly undermining the police's authority at a roadblock in Murombedzi.

The media reported Gama and Goko as having been arrested at the behest of embattled businessman and Zimpapers board member Munyaradzi Kereke over a story suggesting that his family's alleged disappearance was a hoax, while Jena was arrested after clashing with the police over an undisclosed matter.

These were not alone. They coincided with news of the arrest of community news activist Kudakwashe Matura for criminal defamation in Kariba on October 8th, barely two weeks after the police raided what they suspected to be a pirate television station, DDB Harsh 3, in Harare (The Herald and SW Radio Africa, 27/9 and The Zimbabwean and Radio VoP, 8 & 11/10).

Apart from seizing the organization's news-gathering equipment, the police also detained an unspecified number of the company's workers, including freelance journalists, for "questioning", as they suspected the company had contravened sections of the Broadcasting Services Act. The Act criminalizes broadcasting without a licence from the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe.
(The Herald, 27/9).

These incidents occurred hardly a month after Media and Information Minister Webster Shamu threatened a crackdown on "errant media houses" (The Herald, 13/9), no doubt making use of repressive laws, such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Criminal Codification and Reform Act, among others.

Addressing mourners during the burial of former Harare provincial war veterans' leader Christopher Pasipamire in Harare, Shamu warned that government would not hesitate to revoke the operating licences of media organizations "abusing" Press freedom to denounce the country and its leadership (The Herald, 13/9). Shamu declared: "Government has warned them twice and this is the last warning. There is no need for attacking the President or the leadership . . . This is an abuse of the freedom that has been given to them, the freedom brought by the likes of Cde Pasipamire".

He vowed: "We will work together with the Zimbabwe Media Commission to revoke those licences because we cannot watch while the country's leadership is assaulted".

MMPZ views Shamu's threats and the arrest of journalists working for the private media using repressive laws as the initial steps in a campaign by the ZANU PF arm of government to threaten and intimidate these media ahead of next year's elections. These actions lend credibility to growing fears that come elections, the media that ZANU PF considers to be "offensive" will simply be shut down to suffocate critical discussion of its record of government that will deprive the nation of their access to information and their right to express themselves freely.

MMPZ believes these most recent attacks on the private media to be entirely unwarranted and an intolerable violation of the people's democratic rights, and calls again on the country's coalition parties to fulfil their commitments under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to create "a free and diverse media environment".

This can only be achieved if the inclusive government repeals archaic media and security laws, that violate regional and international protocols, such as the African Charter for Human and People's Rights, including its Declaration on the Principles of Freedom of Expression, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

These instruments declare that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, while emphasizing that the existence of laws and practices that undermine this right destroy any country's claim to be a democratic society.

MMPZ urges the government to guarantee media freedom to promote greater public transparency and accountability, as well as good governance and the strengthening of democracy.

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