May, a difficult month for Zimbabwean journalists

Little change has occurred for media operations since President Robert Mugabe had full control over the country; infighting has stunted the power-sharing government from initiating major law reform and journalists are still criminalised.

On Thursday, 21 May 2009, government unison appeared stronger than ever. President Mugabe made several surprise concessions. He agreed to give several key designations to the coalition's second party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which is headed by Morgan Tsvangirai.

In an address made by Tsvangirai, he said that a human rights training program for police and civil servants will be introduced as one way to confront the arrests of Mugabe's opponents, lawyers, journalists and human rights activists.

“Repressive laws are what primarily allows these arrests to persist as well as the clear intention of Zanu (PF) (the President's party) to continue to intimidate human rights defenders,” said Takura Zhangazha, director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in Zimbabwe, to RAP 21.

However, it had been reported in the same address by Tsvangirai that law reforms last year had in effect closed the state commission responsible for shutting down newspapers, arresting journalists and imposing exorbitant fees for media registration.

The BBC has also now been welcomed to report from the country after an eight-year ban and CNN was reminded that there was never a formal ban against them. The BBC has since said that journalists will visit the country and CNN will report from South Africa.

However, the high rate of arrest that has occurred in May 2009 deeply contradicts this apparent triumph for the media. On 11 May 2009, the editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, Vincent Kahiya, and news editor Constantine Chimakure were arrested for allegedly publishing falsehoods. They were released the next day on bail, remanding them to 28 May. Earlier in the month, human rights campaigner and journalist Hestina Mukoko and photojournalist Andrison Manyere, along with 16 others, were arrested for the second time and formally charged. They are due back in court in June and July for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Mugabe. Manyere's lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, was also arrested on 14 May for his involvement in the case.

Editor Brezhnev Malaba of state-owned Sunday Times and journalist Nduduzo Tshuma, are also expected to appear in court soon on charges of defamation.

Zhangazha from MISA explained that there are future plans for media reform, but what it entails is not obvious. “The government has indicated that it intends to introduce a Media Practitioners Bill as well as a Freedom of Information bill to replace the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). No one knows the contents of the aforementioned bills as of now. However, there is also an intention to utilise the existent AIPPA to constitute the Zimbabwe Media Commission, which will still regulate the media statutorily and criminalise practicing journalists without accreditation.”

According to Zhangazha, this will most likely not take place until the end of the year, and furthermore, might not involve much change.

“I see the laws that were amended in 2008 being retained in lieu of the constitutional reform process,” he said.

Article published courtesy of RAP 21