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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
flawed piece of legislation.
MISA-Zimbabwe is in fact concerned that although the appointment of the
commission has been made, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding and
disagreement on the current status of the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act under which the Commission has been appointed. This is indicated
by the legal actions currently underway against some of the clauses of the Act.
Many Zimbabwean women’s organisations have raised the question of the
glaring absence of gender balance in the appointed commission as represented
by the statement that is being circulated. The question of gender balance, we
believe, cannot be separated from that of a complete review of the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act. As a multi-pronged struggle it is
therefore necessary to look at the whole question of the legitimacy of the
Commission, not only from a legal and constitutional point of view, but also
from a social relevance point of view, hence the question of gender balance
on any public body.
As a result of the frequency at which the Act has been used to arrest journalists,
MISA-Zimbabwe believes that the Act has lost the general spirit that it must
promote, i.e. opening up the flow of information from public bodies and institutions
to members of the public. Many of the so-called charges, in our view, do
not warrant such harsh measures. We believe that it is not in the interests of
Zimbabwe for journalists to be arrested almost on a daily basis.
MISA-Zimbabwe therefore believes that it is necessary to build consensus on
the law first, before appointing the Commission. Our position and that of almost
all journalists (state and private), is that the Ministry of Information and
Publicity must encourage and indeed support the initiative by journalists to
form their own regulatory council along the same lines as the Law Society and
other professional bodies. This, we believe will address the question of responsible
journalism that the government is always talking about.
Press Statement
June 13, 2002
TOPIC: Zimbabwe’s Editors Forum launched
Editors of all Zimbabwe’s privately owned media houses have come together
and launched the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (ZINEF) in the capital
Harare on June 12, 2002.
ZINEF interim chairperson is Geoff Nyarota, the editor-in-chief of “The Daily
News”. Other members of the executive are Iden Wetherell, editor of the “Zimbabwe
Independent”, Francis Mdlongwa, editor-in-chief of “The Financial
Gazette”, Bornwell Chakaodza, editor of “The Standard”, and Chiza Ngwira,
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