Media hangman applies to sit on ZMC

Mahoso applied to a special parliamentary committee which invited interested people last week to submit applications to be appointed to the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), which is being set up in terms of a constitutional amendment enacted earlier this year.
Adverts placed in local papers by Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders committee stipulate that those applying to be commissioners must be chosen for their knowledge and experience in the field applied for.
Mahoso, who has presided over the closure of four independent newspapers and refused to open up media space, tendered his application this week, sources in Parliament have confirmed.
While Tongai Mathuthu, who is heading the special committee receiving applications, was not immediately available for comment, impeccable sources in Parliament revealed that Mahoso was among six applicants together with Professor Claude Mararike, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president Matthew Takaona, independent columnist Pius Wakatama and two others. The deadline for applications for appointment to the media commission is tomorrow, Friday June 19.

MIC reincarnated
Parliament will have to sit and vet names of the applicants. Sources say the Zanu (PF) Parliamentary Caucus was planning to back Mahoso. The 12 names that will emerge from Parliament will be forwarded to the President, who will draft the final list of nine commissioners.
Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, said that interviews would be conducted immediately after Friday. “The names of those that applied will be made public while those that are ultimately recommended to President Robert Mugabe will also be made public,” Moyo said.

The setting up of the media commission was supposed to be the starting point in the planned democratisation of the media that has been under the control of Mugabe and Zanu (PF), but the retention of Mahoso is unlikely to open up media space.
Observers say it will simply reincarnate the Media and Information Commission (MIC) which issued stringent conditions for registration of foreign journalists.
Hardliner elements in the Media, Information and Publicity ministry are frantically trying to keep the independent media in check through statutory regulation mechanisms. High Court orders allowing journalists to practice without accreditation, while parliament sets up the ZMC, have been disregarded. Four freelance journalists have successfully applied to the High Court challenging the legality of the MIC.

VMC established
Journalists have established their own Voluntary Media Council (VMC) that is independent from State control.
Loughty Dube, chairman of press freedom group, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe Chapter last weekend told a public meeting in Kwekwe attended by the Parliamentary portfolio committee chairman on media, Gift Chimanikire, that MISA would second commissioners to the ZMC in protest, noting it was opposed to statutory regulation and would push for self-regulation of media through the ongoing constitutional reform process. Chimanikire said the MDC was committed to ushering in a new era of media freedom in Zimbabwe.

“We have been victims of bad media laws like everyone else. Key priorities of STERP are Constitutionalism and Constitution making process and the number two priority is media reforms, so you can see media reforms are important to us,” he said.
Officials from the VMC fired warning shots that they would work feverishly to make sure the voluntary council took precedence and was more credible in the eyes of the public to ensure that the role of the envisaged ZMC would be diminished.
Chimanikire emphasized the MDCs support of the VMC.
“If you go to the MDC policy document you will find that the Voluntary Media
Council of Zimbabwe is there. We believe in self regulation but we cannot amend the GPA,” said Chimanikire.

Besides the ZMC, Parliament was also establishing the Independent Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission under Constitutional Amendment Number 19.
The Independent Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is set to replace the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), accused by the MDC of backing and supporting Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in the last polls. The Anti Corruption Commission is expected to deal with worsening corruption in the country while the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission is expected to start work reviewing the human rights situation in the country.