The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) welcomed the talks aimed at forming a government of national unity seen as the best way to resolve Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis but said a lasting democratic solution was impossible in the absence of a free press.
The right to freedom of expression is the cornerstone of any democracy. MAZ therefore calls upon the negotiators to sincerely take into account issues of media freedom and freedom of expression if true democracy is to be realised in Zimbabwe, the group said in a statement.
The government has also recently clamped down on the country’s largest selling newspaper, The Zimbabwean, by imposing prohibitive tariffs amounting to 70% (payable in foreign currency only) on the importation of foreign, luxury news publications.
MAZ – comprising the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Zimbabwe Chapter), Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe National Editors’ Forum – is the largest coalition for journalists and freedom of expression activists in the country.
The group deplored what it said was a partial and partisan coverage of power-sharing talks by the government controlled media.
We are deeply disturbed by the current manipulation of the government-controlled media which has shut out dissenting voices and provided only a partial and partisan picture of the talks. What is required at this juncture is a media which informs the public of the issues at stake and allows a variety of views to be heard, the media alliance said.
Government-controlled newspapers are the biggest and most dominant in Zimbabwe after Mugabe’s government banned four privately owned newspapers including the Daily News, which was the largest circulating daily at its forced closure in 2003.
There are no independent broadcasters in Zimbabwe. The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) runs the country’s only television and radio stations, all tightly controlled by Mugabe’s government, which has the final say on senior editorial and managerial appointments.
Zimbabwe has some of the toughest media laws in the world. For example, the government’s Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) requires journalists and publishers to obtain licences from the government’s Media and Information Commission in order to practise in Zimbabwe.
The commission can withdraw licences from those who fail to conform. Journalists caught practising without a licence are liable to a two-year jail term under AIPPA.
MAZ called for the repeal of AIPPA, the Broadcasting Services Act that has been used to restrict private investors from the electronic media and the Interception of Communications Act used to spy on personal communications between private citizens.
The group also recommended that the negotiators ensure a constitutional provision that explicitly guarantees Freedom of the Press in line with other democratic practice and the enactment of media laws that guarantee freedom of the media to criticise public office bearers and not unnecessarily protect them from public scrutiny. It called for the transformation of ZBC and Zimpapers from state media to truly public media that serve all concerned Zimbabweans. – ZimOnline
Post published in: News