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As 2005 drew to a close, the government of Zimbabwe demonstrated increasing paranoia,intolerance and disdain for opposing views by seizing the passport of publisher TrevorNcube, arresting Voice of the People Communications Trust (VOP) staff and confiscatingequipment from the same organisation.Immigration officials in Bulawayo seized Ncube’s passport on December 8 2005 upon hisarrival from South Africa. No reasons were advanced for the unlawful action other than thatNcube was on a list of citizens whose passports were to be withdrawn. Ncube is the chairmanof Zimind, publishers of the Zimbabwe Independent and Zimbabwe Standard weeklies. He isalso the publisher of the South African weekly Mail & Guardian. His passport was releasedafter the Attorney General’s Office conceded that the seizure was unlawful.Barely a week later the authorities descended on the Harare offices of the VOP Radio station.They arrested three staff members and confiscated equipment, computers and administrationfiles. The journalists were released without being charged after four nights at Harare CentralPolice station.Significantly, these actions against human freedoms and rights came to the fore in a year duringwhich the country held its sixth parliamentary elections. Zimbabwe has been experiencingsevere economic and political problems since 1998. The March elections, however, did notbring much-desired renewal as the ruling Zanu-PF failed to arrest the country’s economicdecline.The launch of Operation Murambatsvina (‘Restore Order’) in May 2005 dented hopes of agovernment that is determined to correct its human rights record. Tens of thousands of peoplewere made homeless after the government destroyed their shacks and businesses, effectivelykilling the country’s burgeoning informal sector.Undaunted by a subsequent United Nations report slamming the country’s human rights deficit,the Zanu-PF-dominated parliament passed the controversial Constitutional AmendmentNo 17 Bill in August 2005. This bill reintroduced the Senate and seeks to restrict the travel ofindividuals deemed to be acting against the economic interests of the country.Among other contentious clauses, the bill strips the right to the courts by aggrieved parties incases where their land has been acquired by the state. The only appeal allowed is for compensationfor the improvements on land. This violates Zimbabwe’s international obligations, particularlyArticle 7 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which includes“the right to appeal to competent authority organs against acts violating his fundamental rights”.While the government blames its economic misfortunes on recurrent droughts and internationalsanctions, it is these wanton human rights violations, which have earned the country itspariah status. Zimbabwe was ranked the least competitive of the 117 economies studied by theWorld Economic Forum.As has become commonplace, the police descended on demonstrators agitating for a newconstitution and arrested the leaders of the National Constitutional Assembly. Protests againstthe high cost of living were extinguished in a similar fashion, resulting in the arrest of leadersof the umbrella Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.Media environmentZimbabwe is far from conforming with its constitutional, regional and international obliga-So This Is Democracy? 2005-142-Media Institute of Southern Africa