MDC wants Mahoso out of Zimbabwe Media Commission

Mahoso continues to occupy the new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) inherited from the now defunct Media and Information Commission (MIC). When he was chairman of MIC, Mahoso closed down five newspapers and banned local and foreign journalists from practising in Zimbabwe in open defiance of the law. Zimbabwean journalists have been pressing the country’s new unity government to scrap tough media laws which critics say President Robert Mugabe has used to muzzle his opponents.

The MDC, under pressure from media lobby groups, issued a statement condemning the engagement and involvement of Mahoso in the reform of the media industry currently being spearheaded by the ZMC. “We feel strongly as a party that Mahoso has no place in a reform agenda,” the MDC statement said. “His tenure as the chairperson of the now defunct Media and Information Commission is littered with graves of independent newspapers and radio stations. His legacy as a proponent of a shackled media industry speaks for itself.

“Zimbabweans urgently deserve media reform in fulfilment of the provisions of the Global Political Agreement and the national aspiration to democratise our national space. In this new era of reform, there cannot be any room for decorated media hangmen such as Mahoso,” the MDC said. The statement further said “yesterdays enemies of press freedom cannot be todays ambassadors of media reform.”

Several media monitoring groups in Zimbabwe consider the continued tenure of Mahoso as attempts by the Zanu-PF side of the inclusive government to stamp out the independent press. But Chris Mhike, one of the commissioners on the new ZMC board said Mahoso had been reduced to a short-term contract secretariat employee whose only function was to dutifully implement ZMC commissioners’ decisions.

“The decision-makers at the ZMC are the nine commissioners,” Mhike said. “Dr Mahoso will not decide about ZMC. He will just implement the decisions of the commissioners. The use of the MIC seretariat is purely for practical purposes. There is a problem with capacity. So ZMC is making use of the secratariat that used to serve the ZMC,” explained Mhike. But the MDC insisted that “dusk and nocturnal characters who celebrated gagging peoples voices cannot be associated with the new dawn of democracy, media plurality and diversity.”

The MDC statement said: “Engaging Mahoso in saving our media is like employing an undertaker as a nurse in a hospital. As an undertaker, Mahoso was preoccupied with burying independent media voices and he cannot be expected to save and nurse the life of our media industry.” Journalists hope the ZMC will change significantly the working environment for local and foreign journalists in the short term as senior officials around Mugabe are fighting to retain control of media registration.

The new body was officialy appointed by the unity government in April. The chairman of the new body, Godfrey Majonga has said the ZMC was moving to accredit journalists and register media organisations in the interest of press freedom.

Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party adopted regulations eight years ago imposing strict registration conditions for private news organisations, barring foreign journalists from basing themselves in the country and authorising almost routine arrests of journalists accused of reporting “falsehoods.”

Western donors have demanded broad economic and political reforms, including massive media reforms, before committing any of the billions of dollars the new government says are needed to rescue an economy ravaged by years of hyperinflation. A power-sharing pact signed in 2008 by Mugabe and Tsvangirai, which led to the formation of the unity government in February last year, is yet to be fully implemented.

The MDC said three months after its inception, the ZMC should have ensured that Zimbabweans have access to new newspapers, television and radio stations so that the people make informed choices. “Such important national assignments cannot be spearheaded by those who only yesterday bombed and closed independent newspapers and radio stations,” the MDC said, referring to the 2001 bombing of the printing press of the countrys’ sole independent daily newspaper, The Daily News.

“Zimbabweans deserve real change. They want media plurality and reform because access to information is the real currency of democracy,” the MDC said.