Newspapers now a luxury we can’t afford(08-02-07)

ess to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Aippa.
Contrary to its name, Aippa is not about improving access to information or protecting privacy, but protecting the government of President Robert Mugabe from scrutiny by restricting access to information held by public bodies and penalising public and media inquiry into its actions.
Since its enactment, Aippa has been used to close down independent media, including all non-government radio and TV stations and all privately- owned daily newspapers; arrest scores of journalists; and prevent foreign correspondents from working in Zimbabwe.
The most feared man in the same period was its author, Professor Jonathan Moyo, until recently Mugabe’s information minister. But the price of newspapers has overshadowed the media laws. The majority of Zimbabweans simply no longer have access to the government-owned daily Herald newspaper and remaining independent weekly newspapers because of their price.
Only The Zimbabwean remains affordable to the majority of people – selling at Z$750 – or less than half a loaf of bread.
“In an impoverished country where unemployment is estimated at 80 per cent, the greatest threat to access to information now is the cost of newsprint,”
an assistant editor with one independent weekly newspaper told IWPR.
“InDecember 2005 a tonne of newsprint cost Z$79,631 (US$319 at the official exchange rate of 1 = 250). By June 2006, the cost had shot up to Z$335,030 before notching an astronomic Z$2,293,156 in December – and still rising.”
As a result, newspapers have been pricing themselves out of the market simply in an attempt to break even.
The daily Herald which cost Z$100 in June last year now costs Z$1000 after raising its cover price twice in November in response to sharply increased newsprint and printing charges.
With inflation at nearly 1300 per cent, a decent loaf of bread now costs Z$1200. Given the choice between a loaf of bread and a newspaper, the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans choose bread.
The privately-owned weeklies, the Financial Gazette and the Zimbabwe Independent, cost far beyond what most of Zimbabwe’s poor – the overwhelming majority of the population – can afford. From Z$300 in June last year, the two newspapers increased their cover prices to Z$600 in September, Z$1,000 in October before hitting Z$1,500 on November 30. By late January, they were on sale at Z$2500 a copy, more than twice the price of a loaf of bread. This represents an increase in six months of more than 700 per cent.
In a country where 3.4 million people face starvation and are in need of food assistance, according to international agencies, it means one-third of the country’s population of 11.5 million has no easy access to information.
“The implications are double-edged,” said the assistant editor. “Newspapers themselves face a crisis of survival, without the government appearing to be responsible, although everybody knows it is the biggest cause of the economic collapse, now in its seventh straight year of recession.
“This means is that more and more Zimbabweans are getting less and less information – at a time when their country is facing a deepening crisis and they must make informed decisions about their future.
“It means fewer people are participating in national discourse: the ones being cut out of the loop are the most deprived – and that is the majority of our people. It means more people are becoming the victims of the propaganda of those who have impoverished them because government still enjoys the monopoly of four radio stations and the single television station, all under its firm control, and the sole daily newspaper,” said the newsman
Since Aippa was signed into law by Mugabe in 2002, more than 400 journalists have lost their jobs in both the private and the state media while more than 100 have been arrested and tortured before being taken to the courts where government has failed to win a single case. Five newspapers have been shut down under Aippa’s provisions.
Moyo dismissed most of the state media reporters from the monopolistic Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation in 2002 as he purged the organisation of all professional journalists who resisted his propaganda. Many have since fled overseas while foreign media organisations, both electronic and print, have been banned from Zimbabwe.
According to Aippa, every journalist must be accredited every year under the state Media and Information Commission, run by a Mugabe loyalist, before he can practise in Zimbabwe. A breach of the legislation is punishable by both a fine and a jail term. Media houses risk losing their operating licences if they employ unaccredited journalists while they are required by law to be registered before they can operate.
The late chairman of the Parliamentary Legal Committee Eddison Zvobgo described Aippa as the “most calculated assault on our civil liberties” since independence in 1980. – IWPR