Maravi

Zimbabwe relaxes media restrictions

Zimbabwe relaxes media restrictions
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Friday, July 31, 2009 3:37:29 PM

The Zimbabwean government has relaxed its restrictions on the media and has granted the Daily News, a local independent daily newspaper that was banned six years ago, a licence to begin publishing. The government this week also allowed the BBC and CNN to open up bureaux in Zimbabwe, removing the restrictions that have been in place for eight years.

The media reforms are part of the provisions of the political agreement that established the inclusive government between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC.

On Thursday, a special committee set up by the Ministry of Information and Publicity wrote to the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the publishers of the Daily News, stating that they were now free to resume operations.

"This letter serves to advise you that your application for registration as a mass media service provider was successful. The special board committee mandated by the then minister of information to adjudicate on your application is satisfied that you have complied with the provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)," head of the committee Edward Dube wrote.

"(ANZ is) therefore advised to contact the relevant authority for their licence".

Dube has also written a separate letter to the Ministry of Information informing the government of the committee's decision.

The ANZ group used to publish the private daily newspaper and a weekly on Sunday, sharply critical of President Mugabe's rule, and in competition with a government-controlled newspaper group.

In the face of a political and economic crisis blamed on it, the Zimbabwean government adopted tough media laws in 2002 which made it difficult for the local private and foreign media to work in the country.

The Daily News and its sister paper, the Daily News on Sunday, were banned in 2003 after refusing to register under the country's repressive media laws.

Since the newspaper was closed before a string of harassments and arrests of its journalists, Zimbabwe has had no other daily newspapers apart from the government controlled regional papers - the Herald (Harare), The Chronicle (Bulawayo) and the Manica Post (Mutare).

The unity government formed by President Mugabe and Tsvangirai in February to try to ease the political and economic crisis has been under pressure to implement political and media reforms to win critical foreign aid.

In pursuant of reforms aimed at opening up the media space, the unity government is setting up a new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) jointly appointed by the parties to the government to spearhead the reforms, including easing restrictive registration and accreditation requirements for media.

ZMC commissioners were interviewed last Thursday.

This commission will replace the Media and Information Commission (MIC), which was established in 2002 under the widely criticised media laws.

This week, the BBC and CNN were allowed to report from inside Zimbabwe for the first time in eight years.

"The Zimbabwe government has told the BBC there is no ban on its operations and it can resume reporting, legally and openly, in Zimbabwe," the BBC said on its website.

The BBC has had no official presence in Zimbabwe since 2001, when its Harare correspondent fled, though its reporters have often filed undercover stories.

In recent years of political and economic turmoil, most Western organizations had been refused government licenses to report from Zimbabwe. Correspondents from the BBC and other media have acknowledged reporting clandestinely from Zimbabwe, at times entering on tourist visas.

"Inevitably, part of the story becomes how our teams are trying to avoid being found and arrested, rather than focusing on the people of Zimbabwe," the BBC's world news editor, Jon Williams, wrote on a blog on the BBC site about resuming reporting in Zimbabwe. "Operating illegally and clandestinely has to be a last resort. So I'm pleased that we've been assured by the Zimbabwe government that the BBC is not banned, and that we can resume our operations in Zimbabwe."

The Post is the only foreign newspaper that has been allowed to operate in the country since 2007.

The other media outlets are television networks South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Network; and news agencies Agence France Press (AFP) and Associated Press (AP).

Labels: MEDIA, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 2:37 PM