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'Dark day for press freedom'
06/02/2004 11:53 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe journalists have threatened to join anti-government pressure groups if their call for media freedom is ignored, said the Media Defence Fund (MDF) and the Media Lawyers Network (MLN) on Thursday.
Responding to a Supreme Court's judgement to uphold certain sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the MDF and MLN called it a very dark day for press freedom in Zimbabwe.
Rashweat Mukundu, research and information officer for the media institute of Southern Africa, MISA, said the decision had been met with outrage by the various affected bodies.
In Thursday's hearing, bringing to an end 15 months of "hope and speculation", four out of five judges accepted that "the practice of journalism was different from the other liberal professions such as law and medicine... it involves the freedom of expression, the receiving and imparting of information".
But Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said in his judgement: "This distinction, in my view, does not place the practice of journalism beyond the control of statutory regulation."
The Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe, IJAZ's, sought the nullification of various sections of the AIPPA, including a provision making it mandatory for all journalists to obtain accreditation from a government-appointed commission.
But the Supreme Court ruled that the clauses which compel journalists to win accreditation from the body and allow the media commission to develop and enforce a code of conduct, were constitutional.
IJAZ's lawyer, Sternford Moyo, said the judgement by a supreme court, dominated by judges who support President Robert Mugabe's government, "was not unexpected".
But Mukundu said all eyes would now be on the outcome of the Daily News' challenge of the Act, to be heard in the Supreme Court on February 18.
Not overly confident
"We are not overly confident. But only after that decision is made can we plan our route forward," he said.
Mukundu warned however, that media freedom fighters in Zimbabwe were running out of options and may have to adopt a more hard-line stance.
"And while we wait, journalists in this country (Zimbabwe) continue to be arrested and forced out of work," he said.
Mukundu said many freelance journalists were being refused permits to work and were often "arrested and beaten.
In a combined statement, the MDF and MLN said the long-awaited judgement "may be out but it leaves all those who fight for freedom of expression worse off, as all doors to the practising of journalism in an enabling society have been closed.
"We reiterate that the sections upheld by the majority of the bench severely undermine the exercise of freedom of expression and through this the government is targeting the media operating in the private sector who would otherwise be beyond their control."
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