Zimbabwe marks Thursday’s World Press Freedom Day in the wake of relentless attacks on the media and its citizens’ right to freedom, in contrast with other countries that reflect on the progressive steps they have taken to entrench media freedom and freedom of expression, says the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ).
”The widely condemned Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) continue to be used with impunity to muzzle the media and harass journalists,” the MAZ said in a statement on Thursday.
”The intimidation, harassment and unlawful arrests, detentions and torture of journalists going about their professional duties continue unabated.”
Two photojournalists were on March 11 this year detained for two nights together with opposition leaders after police cordoned off the venue of a planned national day of prayer organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. One of them was severely assaulted while in police custody.
Gift Phiri, chief reporter of the Zimbabwean, had a similar nightmarish experience when he was arrested in Harare on April 1 under Aippa on allegations of practising journalism without accreditation.
On January 31, Bill Saidi, editor of the Standard, received a brown envelope containing a bullet and a threatening message warning him to ”watch out”.
”The perpetrators of these unlawful actions remain unaccounted for and continue to freely roam the country, posing serious threats to journalists who are lawfully going about their duties to gather and disseminate information,” the MAZ said.
The alliance believes that full citizens’ participation in the governance and socio-economic and political affairs of Zimbabwe is not possible when newspapers are closed ”at the slightest of excuses”; when the public’s fundamental right to freedom of expression and information is criminalised; and when journalists and other media workers are harassed, arrested, detained and tortured with impunity.
”As we mark this day, hundreds of journalists and media workers have been thrown into the streets following the closure of the Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, the Weekly Times and the Tribune under Aippa.
”The list of unemployed journalists whose future remains uncertain under the prevailing repressive media environment continues to grow with the closure of the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, which faced viability problems following the hostile takeover of the Zimbabwe Mirror Newspaper Group by the Central Intelligence Organisation from its founding publisher, Ibbo Mandaza.”
The MAZ said the situation is not likely to improve ahead of the 2008 elections. State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has said he wishes the widely condemned Aippa and Posa remain on the country’s statutes forever. Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Minister of Information and Publicity, has threatened to close ”anti-government” NGOs accused by the government of masterminding a regime-change agenda.
The alliance, however, ”remains unshaken in its resolve to rescue the journalism profession from Aippa and Posa and promote media accountability”. It is pushing for the establishment of an independent media council in Zimbabwe, in compliance with the 1991 Windhoek Declaration and Banjul Declaration on the Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa, to which Zimbabwe’s government is a signatory.
”We therefore call upon the government to honor and respect its pledges to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and repeal Aippa, Posa and BSA to facilitate the establishment of more alternative sources of information,” it said on Thursday.
”We also implore the government to urgently transform the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation into a truly independent public broadcaster as envisioned under the African Charter on Broadcasting and Southern African Development Community guidelines on the conduct of democratic elections to secure a free environment, more so ahead of the 2008 elections.”