Relaxing media space greeted with suspicion

Under the previous ZANU-PF government, the BBC and CNN were seen as agents of the so-called regime change agenda and hence were hounded out of Zimbabwe forcing the news networks to report from the country’s borders.
More relieving, but suspicious was yet another decision to give the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, a licence to resume publishing.
ANZ was forcibly shut in September 2003 after the company refused to register with the controversial Media and Information Commission led by Sunday Mail columnist Tafataona Mahoso.
Analysts told The Financial Gazette that the government’s “Mr Nice” attitude was a stunt intended to hoodwink regional leaders, ahead of their meeting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), into believing all was well in the shaky coalition, now in its sixth month.
At the summit, President Robert Mugabe is expected to update Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders on progress made by the inclusive government in instituting various political reforms, including media reform, as agreed under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed in September last year.
The two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have already written to SADC chairperson and South African President Jacob Zuma, asking for the regional body’s intervention in resolving a number of issues that have remained outstanding since February when the main political parties started enforcing the power sharing agreement.
These include the appointment of key government officials and the swearing in of agriculture minister-designate Roy Bennett among others.
Foster Dongozi, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, viewed the latest developments as aimed at deceiving SADC leaders because they were unhappy with the slow pace of the full implementation of the GPA. “We view this with guarded optimism and a dose of scepticism as it does not in anyway translate to press freedom and freedom of expression,” said Dongozi.
“We are inclined to believe that this is window dressing intended for the SADC summit, which has been set for Kinshasa in the DRC. The SADC summit is not very far and we see the CNN and the BBC being invited to come and cover Zimbabwe and The Daily News being promised a licence. This can’t be a coincidence,” he said.
“If the government is genuine, it should invite all international media that were hounded out of Zimbabwe. We also want to see more local players, including community radio and television stations. More importantly, we need a repeal of all the laws that impinge on media freedom,” Dongozi added.
Shamu shocked media stakeholders when he anno-unced that the BBC had never been banned from “carrying out lawful activities” inside the country and together with CNN were free to operate in Zimbabwe.
He said the BBC and the government had “now acknowledged the need to put behind us the mutual ruinous behaviour.”
A special committee set up in September 2008 to review the Media and Information Commission’s refusal to grant the paper a licence, said it was “satisfied that ANZ has complied with the provisions of the Access to Inform-ation and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)”.
The chairperson of the special board committee on ANZ, Edward Dube, wrote to the company’s lawyers on July 30 2009 advising them of the decision and went on to say: “Associated Newspapers of Zim-babwe is therefore, advised to contact the relevant authority for their licence.”
Dube also wrote to Shamu advising him of the same.
Iden Wetherell, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Edi-tors Forum, said although lifting the “ban” on  the two international news networks was a promising start, it fell short of the expectations of the media in Zimbabwe.
“It’s a good start, but it’s not sufficient enough to address the needs of the media in the country,” said Wetherell. “The ban must be lifted on all foreign networks and correspondents that were restricted from operating in Zimbabwe.”
Takura Zhanga-zha, the national director of the Media Institute for Sou-thern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe Chapter, said his organisation viewed Shamu’s latest stance as piece meal media reform.
“These latest dev-elopments seem to be coming from the continuing political negotiations of the three political parties ZANU-PF and the two MDC (Move-ment for Democratic Change) formations under the Global Political Agreement and not as a result of media reform,” said Zhangazha.
He said repressive media laws such as AIPPA, which culminated in the closure of the ANZ, The Tribune and The Weekly Times, among others were still intact and operational.
“These fundamental issues have not been addressed. Media reform should not be reliant on the whims of politicians,” said Zhangazha.
MISA-Zimbabwe called upon the inclusive government, parliament, civic society and the public to act in unison to arrive at a new democratic constitution for Zimbabwe that guarantees press freedom, freedom of expression and media self-regulation through an independent body such as the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ).
In accordance with the GPA, Parliament this week interviewed people wishing to serve on the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), which will be responsible for licensing newspapers and journalists, among other media issues.
The interviews were however, mired in controversy and deadlocked amid concerns that the interviewing panel was giving points to candidates along party lines.
The deadlock has since been referred to President Mugabe who will now have to come up with suitable candidates for both the ZMC and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is ranked very low under media freedom index listings. Meanwhile, the VMCZ has called on Parliament to recognise and support the journalists’ initiative to self-regulate and transform into a professional industry through its structures.
The VMCZ research and information officer, Hilton Zvidzayi, accompanied by Chris Mhike, VMCZ councillor, gave a background to the principles and notion of self-regulation when they met members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Infor-mation and Communication Technologies.
Zvidzayi described self regulation as the contemporary democratic route progressive nations are adopting.
“Through VMCZ, journalists in Zimbabwe are saying we want to be professional and ethical while opening ourselves to criticism and positive contribution from consumers of our products,” said Zvidzayi.