Little has changed one year after Zimbabwe earned itself a place on a list of the world’s worst places to be a journalist, published by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Another of the country’s few independent publications, The Weekly Times, was forced to close shop earlier this year, after having its licence withdrawn by the state-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC).
Under Zimbabwe’s 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), journalists and publishing houses must apply to the MIC for a licence to operate.
News organisations are not allowed to employ journalists who have failed to register with the commission. Those reporters who are caught practising without MIC’s blessing face imprisonment of up to two years.
The Weekly Times followed in the footsteps of Zimbabwe’s sole privately-owned daily, The Daily News, that was banned in 2003 along with its sister paper, The Daily News on Sunday.
Another independent weekly, The Tribune, also had its licence withdrawn in 2004.
Licences for journalists have to be renewed every twelve months, while those for publishing houses are good for two years.
”The fear that one’s licence may not be renewed if he or she writes something the government may not like has introduced a certain element of self-censorship,” says Foster Dongozi, Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and a senior reporter for The Standard, an independent weekly.
Dongozi describes the MIC’s requests for information as intrusive.
”Beside… your educational qualifications, you also need to give details such as your place of residence, your private phone numbers, e-mail address, passport details and the details of your spouse, where she works etc.”
This has fuelled fears, he adds, that the MIC is little more than an intelligence-gathering body set up by a state sensitive to the numerous allegations of poor governance and human rights abuse that have been made against it.
Those who have the appropriate documents in hand are said to face hostility from government officials and members of the ruling Zanu-PF party, with certain of its officials accusing reporters of gathering information for the opposition.
”Reporters have been harassed [at] ruling party events,” says Dongozi, who claims that the main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change, has also been known to look askance at journalists from the state-owned media.
The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Bill makes it an offence to communicate information that proves to be false, and which may promote ”public disorder or public violence” in Zimbabwe.
The law places reporters who are unable to substantiate facts with recalcitrant government officials in the position of having to hold-off on publishing important stories indefinitely, lest the items prove inaccurate.
Anyone falling foul of the Criminal Law Bill is liable for a heavy fine or imprisonment of up to twenty years or both. Another clause in the Bill criminalises ”abusive and indecent” statements about the presidency.
The country’s new minister of information, Tichaona Jokonya, has voiced a desire to improve relations between government and the independent media.
Jokonya replaced Jonathan Moyo, widely believed to have been AIPPA’s architect, after he was booted out of Zanu-PF for defying a party directive and standing as an independent candidate in the March 31 parliamentary elections.
At a recent meeting of editors from the private and state media, Jokonya invited journalists to come up with ways in which AIPPA could be amended to make the act more palatable.
Vincent Kahiya, editor of the weekly The Independent”, who attended the meeting, said: ”What remains to be seen is whether the system will allow him to carry out his agenda. It can very well be diplomatic posturing.”
He added that the media should make use of what he described as a ”window of uncertainty” to engage the new information minister.
Crucially, Jokonya has said he believes AIPPA should stay on the books, albeit with possible amendments.
The ultimate arbiter of any possible change to the Act, President Robert Mugabe, still appears supportive of the law.
In an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation after his party won the parliamentary election, Mugabe described AIPPA as ”a good law”, and said it would stay.
As the international community marks World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday, such words are unlikely to inspire confidence amongst reporters in Zimbabwe. – Sapa-IPS