(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The Zimbabwe government’s virtual monopoly of the mass media has allowed it to censor information about the growing popular opposition. “Media Monopoly and Popular Protest”, a report published today by ARTICLE 19, shows how the authorities deny freedom of expression by hiring and firing editorial staff and issuing directives to the newsrooms […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The Zimbabwe government’s virtual monopoly of the mass
media has allowed it to censor information about the growing popular
opposition. “Media Monopoly and Popular Protest”, a report published today
by ARTICLE 19, shows how the authorities deny freedom of expression by
hiring and firing editorial staff and issuing directives to the newsrooms at
the state-owned radio and television stations and daily newspapers.
Richard Carver, Head of Africa Programme at ARTICLE 19 said: “On the face of
it, the government’s monopoly of broadcasting and domination of the
newspaper market is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has been stout in
its defiance of the Constitution, but the government has been too quick to
amend the Constitution whenever it finds itself on the wrong end of a Court
decision. Media reform and a national debate on the Constitution are both
urgent priorities.”
The government continues to exert a degree of control over the mass media
almost without parallel in Southern Africa. Although the independent press
in Zimbabwe is vigorous, it remains small and is constantly inhibited by
legal and economic restrictions. Recently, staff at the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation have been reprimanded and even sacked for coverage
of political protest deemed to be too sympathetic. The editor of the main
national daily paper was sacked after an editorial column criticized the
government’s handling of the crisis. He was replaced by one of President
Robert Mugabe’s relatives.
The report also highlights other forms of official censorship in Zimbabwe,
citing attempts by the government to use the Censorship and Control of
Entertainments Act to prevent the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) from
participating in the 1996 and 1997 Zimbabwe International Book Fairs. The
government-owned mass media has been used to promote a climate of
intolerance, carrying advertisements calling for the death penalty for
homosexuals and the establishment of committees to “mobilise Zimbabweans
against sexual perverts” while denying a right of reply and paid advertising
to gay and lesbian organisations.
The Zimbabwe Ministry of Justice has proposed media law reform and
legislation on freedom of information. ARTICLE 19 has welcomed the proposals
as a first step and recommended further legal reform, including repeal of
the power of pre-publication censorship, instigation of a wide-ranging
freedom of information act, presumption of confidentiality of journalists’
sources and reform of the law of defamation.
