Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

More documents

Recommendations

Info

State of the media in Southern Africa 2002 Selected press statements issued by the MISA Secretariat and chapters during 2002 INTERNATIONAL STATEMENTS • PRESS RELEASES • LETTERS OF APPEAL Letter of Appeal January 18, 2002 TOPIC: Deteriorating press freedom situation in Zimbabwe Mr Kofi Annan United Nations Secretary-General C/o Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General United Nations, S-378 New York, NY 10017 Dear Sir, It is with increasing trepidation that the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) registers its condemnation of the recent passing by the Parliament of Zimbabwe of the Public Order and Security Bill. The Zimbabwe Government has also released the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill which is expected to be debated in Parliament soon. It is MISA’s contention that each of the Bills seeks to severely curtail the workings of the already beleaguered independent media in that country. MISA urges the United Nations to persuade the Zimbabwean Government to reverse the mentioned bills and calls for an urgent return to the rule of law in the country. MISA protests these Bills for the following reasons: • They impose excessive restrictions on the content of what the media may publish or broadcast; • They call for all journalists to obtain accreditation from a government- controlled body; • They call for all media outlets or businesses disseminating media products, including video and audio recordings, to obtain a registration certificate from a government-controlled body; • They specify that all foreign-dominated ownership of the media is prohibited and non-citizens are prohibited from working as journalists; and • They endow the authorities with excessive powers to prevent demonstrations. 2002 MISA issued no less than 33 alerts on different forms of media violations against the independent media in Zimbabwe during 2001. These violations ranged from a bomb attack on a news organisation, to the arrest and detention of individual journalists, verbal and physical attacks on journalists by both the government 252 So This Is Democracy?
State of the media in Southern Africa 2002 and its supporters and, possibly most worrying, a barrage of threats of violence and incarceration against news organisations and individual journalists that have served to psychologically cripple the news media. The threats uttered against the independent newspaper “The Daily News” on January 23, 2001, by members of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) as they marched through the street of Harare, did in no way prepare the Zimbabwean or international media fraternity for the bomb attack on the offices of that newspaper just five days later. Two days prior to the bomb attack, ZANU-PF supporters and members of the so-called war veterans publicly declared ‘war’ against “The Daily News” in two towns outside Harare for alleged “unpatriotic coverage” of national issues. The protesters pounced on newspaper vendors and confiscated copies of the newspaper, burning the copies in front of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) TV cameras. On February 20, 2001 the world watched as the Zimbabwean Government expelled two foreign journalists, Joseph Winter (BBC) and Uruguayan Mercedes Sayagues (Mail&Guardian) from the country, declaring them prohibited immigrants never to be allowed in Zimbabwe again. This incident set the scene for a gradually tightening grip on the freedoms allowed to foreign correspondents covering news events in Zimbabwe. On the legislative environment, the Zimbabwean Government on April 3, 2001, passed into law the controversial Broadcasting Services Bill 2001, as ZANU- PF legislators rejected a second adverse report by the Parliamentary Legal Committee. The Committee declared some sections of the broadcasting regulations as unconstitutional but the Speaker of the House dismissed the report on a technicality. The Broadcasting Act, among others, hinders opposition parties from broadcasting freely during elections and gives the Minister of Information and Publicity excessive powers, while controlling any prospective independent broadcast stations. The human rights climate created by the ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe leaves much to be desired and places in jeopardy any possibility of free and fair elections expected to take place on March 9 and 10 this year. In response to the media violations in August 2001, Asma Jahangir (Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions) and Abid Hussein (Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression) of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights expressed their extreme concern about reports of death threats against five Zimbabwean journalists who have “publicly denounced the repeated violations of press freedom in their country”. In a communication to the Zimbabwean Government on August 22, 2001, the Special Rapporteurs refer to allegations that these journalists appear on a hit list compiled by the So This Is Democracy? 253
Page 1 and 2:
So This Is Democracy? Report on the
Page 3 and 4:
State of the media in Southern Afri
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
REGIONAL OVERVIEW State of the medi
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
ANGOLA State of the media in Southe
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
BOTSWANA State of the media in Sout
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
LESOTHO State of the media in South
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
MALAWI State of the media in Southe
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
MOZAMBIQUE State of the media in So
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
NAMIBIA State of the media in South
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
SOUTH AFRICA State of the media in
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
SWAZILAND State of the media in Sou
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
TANZANIA State of the media in Sout
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
ZAMBIA State of the media in Southe
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
ZIMBABWE State of the media in Sout
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202: ZIMBABWE State of the media in Sout
Page 251: ZIMBABWE State of the media in Sout
Page 255 and 256: State of the media in Southern Afri
Page 303 and 304:
Page 305 and 306:
Page 307 and 308:
Page 309 and 310:
Page 311 and 312:
Page 313 and 314:
Page 315 and 316:
Page 317 and 318:
Page 319 and 320:
Page 321 and 322:
Page 323 and 324:
Page 325 and 326:
Page 327 and 328:
Page 329 and 330:
Page 331 and 332:
Page 333:
show all

Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?