(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Zimbabwean authorities’ threatened closure of the independent weekly “The Tribune”. The threat came on 3 May 2004, World Press Freedom Day, following accusations that the paper failed to notify the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) of internal changes. MIC Chair Tafataona Mahoso has alleged that the newspaper failed […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Zimbabwean authorities’ threatened closure of the independent weekly “The Tribune”. The threat came on 3 May 2004, World Press Freedom Day, following accusations that the paper failed to notify the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) of internal changes.
MIC Chair Tafataona Mahoso has alleged that the newspaper failed to report changes to its trade name, its form and frequency of publication, as well as possible changes in its shareholders. Mahoso gave “The Tribune” seven days to reply, after which its operating licence would be suspended or revoked for “non-compliance with authorisation and accreditation procedures”, as established by the media law passed in March 2002.
RSF has denounced the decision as “arbitrary” and “a clear violation of press freedom based on reasons completely unrelated to the newspaper’s activities.”
The primary target of President Robert Mugabe’s government is one of the newspaper’s leading shareholders, Kindness Paradza, a member of parliament who was expelled the previous week from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Unity Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party. In March, Paradza had criticised the media law before Parliament, saying it restricted press freedom by forcing all Zimbabwean media and journalists to obtain accreditation from the MIC. The requirement has allowed the government to shut down “The Daily News”, a vocal critic of the regime, and to ban all foreign reporters from residing in Zimbabwe.
The state-owned media has also accused Paradza of colluding with “government enemies,” following funding appeals made by the shareholder to the owners of “The Daily News” and to British investors.
According to RSF, Zimbabwe violates press freedom more than any other country in southern Africa. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo recently warned journalists that there was enough room in Zimbabwe’s prisons for those who used the foreign press to “lie”(see IFEX alert of 7 May 2004).
