As Zimbabwe joins the rest of Africa in commemorating Africa Day on 25 May 2011 the country should seize the opportunity to reflect on its progression or lack thereof towards fulfilment of its obligations in terms of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
This is critical as the country forges ahead with its constitution making process which should culminate in the production of a democratic home-grown constitution moulded along the various regional and international instruments that it subscribes to.
The government should therefore self-introspect on its human rights record as enshrined and espoused under the African Charter. Other African instruments include the Banjul Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression, Windhoek Declaration, African Charter on Broadcasting, SADC Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport and SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
MISA-Zimbabwe is therefore urging the government to critically review the countrys record as it pertains to promotion and protection of citizens rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and access to information. While MISA-Zimbabwe notes the commendable steps towards fulfilling the obligations of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration which has seen the licensing of more than 25 media houses in the print sector by the Zimbabwe Media Commission, the same cannot be said of the broadcasting sector.
The sector has remained stagnated since Zimbabwes independence in 1980 as evidenced by monopoly of the airwaves by the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Private broadcasters and community radio stations continue to mushroom and proliferate throughout the southern African region and Africa as a whole save for Zimbabwe and Eritrea. In 2008, for example, the DRC had 41 radio stations and 51 TV stations in Kinshasa alone out of a total of 381 radio stations and between 81 and 93 TV channels throughout the country. In 2006/7 Benin had 73 radio stations while Uganda has more than 120 and Mali 200.
Also of concern is the continued existence of criminal defamation and insult laws as enshrined under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act which pose obstacles to the media and civic society organisations watchdog roles over the three arms of the state in keeping with the principles of good governance, transparency and accountability.
Zimbabwe cannot be proud of such laws which are relics of colonialism notwithstanding the fact that the former colonial power Britain scrapped these in 2009. MISA-Zimbabwe therefore reiterates its calls for constitutional provisions that explicitly guarantee media freedom and the citizens right to access to information.
In coming up with a new constitution vis–vis the envisaged media reforms, MISA-Zimbabwe urges the constitutional thematic committees and the inclusive government to take into serious consideration the principles of the African human rights instruments whose founding cascade from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Post published in: Politics