(MISA/IFEX) – Civic groups said the Broadcasting Services Act 2001 gives Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo excessive powers, “The Daily News” reported on 7 April 2001. The groups said the new act, currently awaiting President Mugabe’s signature, would enable the minister to control any new private radio and television stations and community radio stations, […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Civic groups said the Broadcasting Services Act 2001 gives Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo excessive powers, “The Daily News” reported on 7 April 2001.
The groups said the new act, currently awaiting President Mugabe’s signature, would enable the minister to control any new private radio and television stations and community radio stations, which he may wish to approve.
Anthony Brooks, a Harare lawyer representing Capital Radio, an aspiring radio station, said that a constitutional challenge of the act is now in progress and that a number of the legislation’s sections are being challenged. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the Public Service Association, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association, the National Constitutional Assembly, a human rights non-governmental organisation, Amani Trust, the Community Working Group on Health, the Zimbabwe National Students Union and the Media Monitoring project all described the new act as “draconian”.
“The act is a recipe for continued state-control of radio and television, leading to the silencing, not the liberation or amplifying, of the many unheard voices in our society,” said the civic groups in a joint statement.
The organisations said the minister would decide who obtains a licence, which he could change at will. The minister would also be able to close down any radio or television station. The civic groups said that the act failed to respect and protect the rights to information and communication, as enshrined in Zimbabwe’s constitution and Southern African and international conventions of which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
“We call on the government to implement a legitimate process of national debate and consultation, leading to the development of democratic media laws whose main objective is the nurturing of a more democratic Zimbabwe,” reads the statement.
Background Information
Minister of State for Information and Publicity Professor Moyo has defended the Broadcasting Services Act 2001, saying that the adverse report by the Parliamentary Legal Committee has no
bearing since the house is superior and has the final say.
Moyo said that there is no committee that is superior to the house adding that the committee makes reports to the full parliament, which has the mandate to make decisions. Moyo also said that he would stick by the report made by the attorney general, which dismissed the adverse report.
The Broadcasting Services Act 2001 will affect the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), particularly through its clause on local programme content.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members of parliament proposed amendments to some sections of the bill without success, as Moyo dismissed their suggestions as being without merit.
The bill was passed into an act after twelve hours of intense debate on 3 April.
On 22 September 2000, a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court nullified the ZBC’s broadcasting monopoly. The judgement made null and void the Broadcasting Act under which ZBC was pronounced as the sole broadcaster in Zimbabwe. The legislative vacuum was filled by the 4 October New Broadcasting Regulations, which came under the Presidential Powers Act.
The challenge to the ZBC monopoly was made by Capital Radio, a prospective radio station in Zimbabwe.
