In an exclusive interview at an Access to Information Workshop on the weekend political analyst, Takura Zhangazha, said the media industry was not going to change should the gazetted ZMC operate under the current restrictive media laws such as IPPA and POSA. AIPPA and POSA were responsible for the criminalisation of the journalism profession. The Acts which the then Zanu (PF) government enacted in early 2000 to silence critical voices led to the closure of the Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, the Tribune, Radio Voice of the People (Radio VOP) among many other independent media outlets. This left hundreds of journalists jobless.
Our advice to the new media commissioners is that they need to repeal or recommend the repulsion of AIPPA and advocate for the introduction of another Act through the parliament which is democratic and does not criminalize the profession of journalism or media issues in the country. Yes, there will be some in the commission who will try and discourage the use of AIPPA and of course there will be some supporting it, but the key issue here is that the issue must be taken to parliament which enacts laws as well as the government. There is no way that you say you have moved from a repressive media environment if you retain AIPPA in the form that it is now because a journalist can still be arrested for undertaking their work.
Our recommendation well has been if anybody has a problem with the media they should go the civil route, by suing somebody for defamation and compensation as opposed to sending a media practitioner to prison, said Zhangazha. Media Institute of Southern Africa Zimbabwe Chapter Advocacy Officer, Thabani Moyo, said Regional and International Access to Information conventions in which Zimbabwe has ratified, should force it to abide by the treaties it committed to observe.
We are worried by the continued violation of media rights by politicians despite the country having ratified some international treaties that guarantee media freedom and call upon such bodies to make some follow ups and force Zimbabwe to observe its commitments, he said told journalists attending the same workshop. Zimbabwe has ratified to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, SADC protocol on Culture Information and Sport, but it has deliberately continued to flout these declarations provisions.
Post published in: News