Zimbabwe: Government criticised for failing media reform

The unity government has been criticised for failing to fulfill its promise of media reform, in a press report that has detailed how Zimbabwe has the most exiled journalists in Africa over the past decade.

According to the report ‘Attacks on the Press 2009,’ most of Zimbabwe’s exiled journalists left as a result of sustained harassment by the ZANU PF government since 2000. In interviews with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) many of these journalists said it took years for them to re-establish themselves professionally and secure sound economic footings for their families. Many have been forced to abandon journalism as a career.

“At least 48 Zimbabwean journalists have been forced into exile since 2000,
most of them in the early half of the decade during sustained harassment by
President Robert Mugabe’s government,” said Tom Rhodes, Africa programme coordinator at CPJ.

The number compares to just 30 exiled journalist from civil war-torn Somalia, and is still higher than second-placed Ethiopia where 41 media professionals have fled to other countries to escape their government’s persecution over the past 10 years.

The report detailed how, despite the promise of media reform made by the unity government, ZANU PF loyalists have continued to harass, detain, and attack journalists. Since the coalition was formed in February last year, there have been arbitrary arrests and detentions of journalists, as well the imposition of exorbitant fees for visiting foreign journalists and local journalists working for foreign media. According to news reports, foreign correspondents in Zimbabwe were told to pay an application fee of US$10,000 and a further fee of US$22,000 for accreditation and permit. Local journalists working for foreign media organisations were told to pay up to US$4,000 in fees—an amount few Zimbabweans can afford.

A May 2009 conference organised by Minister of Information Webster Shamu was touted as promoting ‘an open, tolerant, and responsible media environment.” Instead, the government demonstrated its own intolerance. The media conference was boycotted by members of the private press in part over the government’s harassment and detention of freelance photojournalist Andrison Manyere. Then, while the conference was under way, police arrested Zimbabwe Independent Editor Vincent Kahiya and News Editor Constantine Chimakure on charges of ‘publishing falsehoods.’ A Harare magistrate released Kahiya and Chimakure on bail the next day.

Most recently, a Mexican journalist was arrested this month while he was in Masvingo, where he was gathering footage for a documentary on the upcoming football World Cup in South Africa. He was released only after the Minister of Tourism’s intervention, despite having permission from the Minister himself to be in the country. In January, freelancer Manyere was arrested once again while covering a demonstration calling for better education by the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise. He was released the same day. Earlier that same week, freelance journalist Stanley Kwenda was forced to flee the country after receiving a death threat. The caller, allegedly a police officer, warned Kwenda that he would not survive the weekend if he didn’t leave.

The CPJ report also detailed how the government has failed to implement reforms to the repressive media acts such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Service Act. The AIPPA reforms called for the creation of a new media regulator, which, with private media representation, could act more independently than its predecessor, the Media and Information Commission. But the new regulatory agency had not been established by the end of 2009. The CPJ report also detailed that in the broadcast arena, 2009 ended as it began, with the continuing state monopoly of broadcast media.

The critical need for media reform has this week been emphasised by the Zimbabwe Youth Forum, which said in a statement that media reform and national development go hand in hand. The group slammed the one-sided reporting of the state-controlled media which dominates the media space in Zimbabwe. It also highlighted how the entire constitution reform process and national healing process is being negatively affected by the government’s failure to free up the media.

- February 23, 2010 by Alex Bell

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Source:  www.swradioafrica.com/news230210/media230210.htm  (accessed on 24.02.10)