Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
Protection of Privacy Bill, was largely negated when President Mugabe signed
into law the Public Order and Security Bill last week. If the Zimbabwe Government
had been genuine in its intentions, the President would have sent back the
bill to parliament rather than sign it into law.
This Act gives the government sweeping powers to clamp down on the opposition
and the media. Among others, it fines anyone who “undermines the
authority of the president” or “engenders hostility towards him” through speech
or publication. The new law also bans assemblies, including “spontaneous
meetings”, held without police permission and restores a former law requiring
people to carry identification at all times. Furthermore, this new Act appears
to be more repressive than the 1960 Rhodesian Law and Order Maintenance
Act (LOMA) which it has replaced.
MISA is of the opinion that the Zimbabwean Government has yet to demonstrate
an authentic attempt to honour the principles of democracy and good
governance, as is desired by the Commonwealth. The Zimbabwean government
continues its campaign of suppression of free speech, arrest and beatings
of media practitioners and members of civil society. The sale of privately
owned newspapers like the Daily News, The Financial Gazette, The Independent
and The Standard has been banned by the government supported socalled
war veterans in some parts of the country.
One such way of verification of the situation existing on the ground in the
country is through the immediate deployment of any observer mission. This
observer mission should be adequately resourced to enable it to cover the
whole country and to work independently of government. Its members should
be allowed unfettered access to all parts of the country including occupied
farms. The mission should be allowed to work in Zimbabwe before, during
and after the presidential elections. The mission should also look into the
interference of the operations of the media by the political parties and government
agents.
We wish to urge your good office to persuade President Robert Mugabe and
his government immediately to allow the media, including foreign correspondence,
to work in the country, covering the current campaign for the presidential
elections and to continue reporting during and after the elections. It is our
view that this would enable the complete coverage of the election process as
expected in a democracy.
2002
We further call on you for support for a separate initiative to put together a
Media Monitoring Team that will specifically monitor news coverage with an
emphasis on the observation of standard journalism ethics such as impartiality,
avoidance of inflammatory language, right of reply and verification of
information before publishing.
256 So This Is Democracy?