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Judgment 'appals' Bar Council
09/02/2004 14:30 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The General Council of the Bar of South Africa on Monday called a judgment by the Zimbabwe Supreme Court - requiring journalists to hold licences issued by the state upon pain of a mandatory two-year jail sentence without the option of a review - a double blow to justice.
"This latest assault on freedom of expression in Zimbabwe is all the more disconcerting for it being perpetrated in a judgment written by the Chief Justice of that country," the advocates body said in a statement.
"Thus the judgment is not only a blow to freedom of expression, but also to the independence of the judiciary, and is to be doubly deprecated.
"The General Council of the Bar calls on all civil rights groups within and outside of Zimbabwe, and all voluntary association of lawyers, to continue to oppose by all reasonable means at their disposal the violations of basic human rights persistently perpetrated by the Government of Zimbabwe," the statement added.
The SA National Editors Forum expressed similar sentiments on Sunday when it said it would seek a meeting with the Department of Foreign Affairs to express concern over the ruling that has effectively closed the Daily News in Zimbabwe.
Zuma
Sanef also called on the South African government to condemn the decision as it not only contravened the freedom of expression principles of Zimbabwe?s constitution, but also those contained in protocols adopted by the South African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU).
But Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Monday told a parliamentary news briefing that she did not understand how the registration of the media with the government could lead to interference with their duties.
She said Harare's requirement that the media be registered did not necessarily strip the media of its freedom.
"I don't see how that would in itself translate to control (of) the media, unless we could say here and here and here the government has refused a legal application," Dlamini-Zuma said.
SABC television news reported that she added that the freedom of the media would only be an issue once the government refuses to register a media organisation, which a court of law had ruled should be registered.
- SAPA
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