Zimbabwe will soon amend its controversial media laws in a bid to ‘rationalise’ them, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said on Wednesday.
”We believe that different situations require different responses,” Moyo told senior army officers at the Zimbabwe National Army training college.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act came into being last March, days after President Robert Mugabe had been re-elected in disputed polls.
He did not give details of the changes to the law which has seen more than a dozen journalists so far arrested and charged for allegedly breaching of the act.
”We are amending because we realise at the time we enacted it the temperatures were very high, but when the storm has gone you sit back and rationalise and we are sitting back to rationalise because the storm is gone,” Moyo said.
He added that it was necessary at the time to introduce such tough laws ”to send a very clear and unequivocal message and we believe it has (been sent)”.
Under the press laws all newspapers, reporters, media houses and outlets have to be registered with a special government-appointed commission.
Moyo said there were also plans to amend the Broadcasting Services Act which broke a monopoly held by the state radio and television station.
However there has not been much evidence on the ground of the opening up of the airwaves two years after that law was introduced.
He said the changes would result in the setting up of another national radio to compete with the state broadcaster and many community radio stations.
Moyo announced that the government is setting up information kiosks in traditionally information-starved rural areas.
”We are going to see a lot of activity on this and we expect our detractors to scream about this because they will realise the impact it is going to have,” he said.
Moyo accused some media of waging hate campaigns from abroad — an apparent reference to SW Radio Africa based in Britain.
Moyo also called a move last week by US President George Bush to freeze assets belonging to President Robert Mugabe and 76 of his government officials another propaganda tool by the West bent on serving white interests in Zimbabwe.
”They have frozen these assets 10 times over, they keep freezing them. Even a child can read that kind of propaganda,” he said. – Sapa-AFP