Zimbabwe supreme court rejects fast-track review of media law
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by foreign journalists to urgently revise a tough new media law they say infringes on press freedom, the Foreign Correspondents’ Association said on Friday.
Three foreign journalists — Jan Raath, Peta Thornycroft and Andrew Meldrum, who report for British dailies — asked the court early this month to urgently examine the most restrictive aspects of the law, enacted by President Robert Mugabe after his controversial re-election in March.
But the court said there was “no sufficient basis” to fast-track the journalists’ request, Meldrum told AFP.
“We have to follow the normal procedure. It can take months and months,” said the reporter for the Guardian, who was himself arrested under the law early this month.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) gives the information minister sweeping powers to decide who can work as a journalist in Zimbabwe.
It created a government commission that hands out “licences” that allow a journalist to work in the southern African country.
The law bans foreigners from working as journalists based in Zimbabwe. The new commission will grant accreditation only to citizens and “permanent residents”. Since the law was enacted, a dozen journalists from the foreign and independent domestic press have been arrested.
Thornycroft, a citizen of Zimbabwe, was detained for five days in March and released without charge, while Meldrum, a US citizen with permanent residency in Zimbabwe, was detained early this month and spent a day in police cells.
Meldrum’s lawyer said he was accused of abuse of journalistic privileges and publishing false information
On Thursday, the editor and two reporters at Zimbabwe’s independent weekly The Standard were arrested. According to the paper’s deputy editor, they were charged with abuse of journalistic privilege.
Under the new law, publishing false information and working unlicenced as a reporter are crimes. – AFP