Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

ZIMBABWE
State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
and preserved for the good of the nation.
ALERT
DATE: 2002-01-14
INSTITUTION(S): Broadcasters
VIOLATION(S): Censored
Zimbabwe’s Minister of State for Information
and Publicity Jonathan
Moyo wants the European Union
(EU) to urge the British and Netherlands
governments to stop sponsoring
short wave radio stations that
broadcast in Zimbabwe.
On Friday January 11, 2002, Moyo
was talking to “The Sunday Mail”
about the current deliberations between
the EU and Zimbabwe taking
place in Brussels, Belgium. He said
that Britain and the Netherlands are
sponsoring illegal short wave radio station
broadcasts in Zimbabwe. “The
British are funding their citizen, Jerry
Jackson, who in September 2000 ran
a pirate radio station calling itself
“Capital Radio”, working with [Movement
for Democratic Change, MDC]
legislator and Rhodesian war veteran
David Coltart, Mike Auret Jnr. and
other Rhodesians,” said Moyo. “Who
else is having access to the EU sponsored
illegal broadcasts besides the
treacherous MDC?” asked Moyo.
The “Voice of the People” and “SW
Radio Africa” are the two radio stations
to which Moyo was referring in
his attack. Both are operating shortwave
stations broadcasting news on
the situation in Zimbabwe. Moyo accuses
the two of being pro-opposition.
Jackson is the former director of Capital
Radio; the first station to challenge
the monopoly of the state-owned and
run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) at the Supreme Court.
ZBC’s monopoly was subsequently
overthrown, deemed unconstitutional.
ALERT
DATE: 2002-01-15
INSTITUTION(S): Media in Zimbabwe
VIOLATION(S): Threatened
On January 14, 2002, an all-night
vigil at the Zimbabwean Parliament,
organised by journalists working for
the independent media in Zimbabwe,
was cut short as police threatened the
use of force if the journalists defied
an order to vacate. The vigil was organised
in protest of the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy
Bill, which is set to be passed on 15
January.
The journalists, numbering between
30 and 40, gathered at the Parliament
as of 7:30 p.m. (local time), in the capital
Harare. Parliament security immediately
ordered the journalists to leave,
stating that the Parliament building is
a protected security area. The police
said that no one is allowed near the
building after 6:00 p.m. and that anyone
who defied this risked being shot.
Parliament security and police who
guard the premises threatened to confiscate
cameras and video cameras
from journalists who were taking pictures
of the peaceful protest.
The leaders of the demonstrating
journalists, Basildon Peta and Abel
Mutsakani, were briefly whisked into
the Parliament building by police and
Parliament security, where they were
warned not to defy the order to leave.
A police inspector in charge of the
Central Business District was called
and indicated that if the journalists re-
So This Is Democracy? 183