Rights groups have warned that Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF are trying to further stifle Zimbabweans' access to information, in a new controversial bill about to be submitted to parliament.
International media rights organisation, Reporters Without Borders, on Wednesday called for the
withdrawal of the ‘General Laws Amendment Bill’, announced last month and drafted by the ZANU PF side of the coalition government. The rights group said “the proposed law’s sole aim seems to be
to place additional obstacles in the way of access to information and thereby hamper the work of the media even more.”
The bill will allow the authorities to block public access to official documents, including judicial decisions, new legislation and public records. It would enforce copyright on all government documents, which could then only be published with the government’s approval, as the sole copyright
holder. For example, if a private organisation wanted to publicise electoral laws prior to an election it would have to get permission from the government, in addition to any permission it may require from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Also, if a human rights organisation wanted to publish details of a court ruling that, for example, affected the rights of citizens, it would have to get permission from the Justice Minister, who is
currently ZANU PF top-dog Patrick Chinamasa. All this would restrict the ability of ordinary citizens
to monitor what the authorities do and is completely contrary to international principles of good
governance.
According to parliamentary watchdog Veritas, the bill is clearly unconstitutional, because Section 20 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, that is to say freedom to “receive and impart ideas and information without interference”. The proposed amendment will hinder this freedom because no one will be able to publish laws and court proceedings without permission from the Government.
Reporters Without Borders Secretary General Jean-François Julliard on Wednesday said; “The bill will further aggravate the already precarious situation for Zimbabwe’s media.” He said it appeared to be a deliberate political move “designed to prevent any critical examination of the government’s actions.”
“The bill is extremely dangerous as it would allow the authorities to adopt unjust measures without anyone knowing and without anyone being able to protest. It shows that the government is rejecting transparency in favour of secrecy and abuse of authority,” Julliard added.
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) also said this week that the proposed amendment bill would worsen an already heavily restricted media environment. The group said; “Clauses in the Bill published last month are a blatant attempt to gag the media from reporting on important government actions that are currently free from restriction.”
Loughty Dube, the Chairman of the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa(MISA), told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that the current media environment was “restrictive
enough without new clampdowns.” He said there have been no meaningful changes to the media space since the inception of the unity government, despite promises in the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) to reform the restrictive situation.
“I do no see any meaningful reforms any time soon, especially not before elections next year. We are seeing already the restrictions against journalists so things are looking bleak ahead of elections,” Dube said.
The bill’s announcement has coincided with a number of developments in recent weeks that have raised concerns about a renewed crackdown on the media. Most recently, police in Bulawayo this week arrested Standard journalist Nqobani Ndlovu and charged him with criminal defamation, for a
story he wrote on the cancellation of promotional examinations in the police force.
The arrest followed the government’s announcement at the start of the month that no licences would
be issued for new radio or TV stations, saying there were no mechanisms in place to ‘monitor’ the actions of the independent broadcast media. Before that, two journalists, Nkosana Dhalmini and Andrison Manyere, were arrested while covering a public debate at the end of last month and were held for two days. An arrest warrant was also recently issued for The Zimbabwean editor Wilf Mbanga, in connection with an article critical of Mugabe that was published after the 2008 elections.
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