The court decided that the Daily News first had to apply to the State for a licence to publish, before it could apply to the court to object to a law that enforces state licensing of the media. After this unexpected turn of events, the Daily News had little room for manoeuvre. It applied to the State for a licence to operate -- and the State refused it.
This refusal, however, has again opened the way for the Daily News to challenge the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), albeit through a circuitous legal route. The AIPPA requires state licensing of all "mass media services" and all individual journalists by a state-appointed Media and Information Commission as a precondition of the right to publish. In the view of the Daily News these legal requirements are in breach of the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Yes, Zimbabwe was once a good country.
Conscience
It is not only the Daily News that is fighting for survival in Zimbabwe. At this stage (October 6) 15 of its journalists have been arrested and charged separately for practising without State accreditation. The remaining 30 journalists on the newspaper are also under investigation. Beyond them, there are journalists in Zimbabwe on other independent newspapers, including some editors, who have not applied for individual accreditation with the State – as a matter of conscience.
Without accreditation, they are not allowed to practise as journalists in the country – not even in a freelance capacity. Under the AIPPA, it is now illegal in Zimbabwe to exercise your national right to freedom of expression and your right to work in your chosen profession as guaranteed in the country’s constitution.
There are a number of other notable independent (weekly) newspapers in Zimbabwe including The Standard, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Financial Gazette. As a matter of survival they applied for and received State registration, but some of their employees were either refused individual accreditation, or as a matter of conscience refused to apply for accreditation. On the Daily News, some journalists applied for accreditation, but were refused, because their newspaper was not licensed by the state.
Criminal penalties under AIPPA
Under the AIPPA it is illegal for a ‘mass media service’ to operate as an unregistered service and/or to employ unaccredited journalists. The penalty in both cases includes forfeiture of (all) the assets of that mass media service to the State, and prison sentences and fines for the respective (holding) company directors. Unaccredited journalists found working as journalists can also be imprisoned and fined.
Over the last year about 50 journalists (but also some drivers and lawyers) have been arrested in relation to media coverage of events in Zimbabwe. Most of these were Zimbabweans, but also included a number of foreign journalists including at least two Dutch journalists. Raymond Bouwman and Pim Hawinkels of RTL5 TV were arrested on 26 February this year for filming Zimbabweans queuing for bread in Bulawayo.
MISA under attack
The civil society organisations that defend and promote free, fair and independent media are now also being targeted. MISA-Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean national chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), has been told that it too has to register as a ‘mass media service’.
Under the AIPPA, any civic organisation that publishes information in any form and distributes it to a wider readership beyond its own members falls under the definition of a ‘mass media service’.
That MISA-Zimbabwe has come into the firing line is not a surprise. It reports all the media freedom violations that occur in that country, and conducts high-profile advocacy in support of free and independent media. It has gone to court to challenge the provisions of AIPPA that define it as a ‘mass media service’. Perhaps it too will be told to hang under the law first and to complain later.
Diplomatic offensive
But MISA has also gone further. MISA-Zimbabwe and the Regional Secretariat of MISA in Namibia have gone on the diplomatic offensive. Three teams from Zimbabwe are currently travelling to other African countries where they hold press conferences, visit the governments of those countries and embassies of other African countries.
They draw attention to the media crisis in Zimbabwe. Each team consists of a representative of MISA-Zimbabwe, an editor of one of the independent newspapers and a media lawyer. They are fed up with the policy of ‘quiet diplomacy’ as led by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and practised by the 14 member governments of the Southern African Development Community and in the African Union.
They believe that the voices of the people of Zimbabwe must be heard outside of its borders, particularly in Africa, and not only the voices of the ZANU-PF government and the MDC opposition party.
All rise: The people of Zimbabwe are standing to speak!
www.misa.org
www.mmpz.org.zw
Jeanette Minnie is an advisor to NiZA on the issue of freedom of expression. She has been a director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), South Africa.
jcmin@iafrica.com
