Government of Zimbabwe admits to shortcomings in media laws of the country

Written by MISA

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:33

The Zimbabwe government contends that they are very much aware of the problematic and repressive provisions of laws such as AIPPA and POSA and that plans are under way to rectify these laws and ensure that they are in sync with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and People’s rights. This admission was made by David Mangota, the head of the government of Zimbabwe delegation to the 46th Ordinary session of the African Charter on Human and People’s rights being held in Banjul, the Gambia from 11 to 25 November 2009, in response to the activity report presented by the special rappoteur on freedom of expression and access to information, commissioner Pantsy Tlakula following the concerns on AIPPA.
“We want to advise the commission that we have not received the communication of 30 June 2009 but we are however aware of the shortcomings of this legislation and we are already addressing this,” said Mangota referring to the ACHPR’s decision of June 2009 in which it ruled that section 79 and 80 of AIPPA contravene Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and should be repealed. This followed a communication (complaint) filed against the government by the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ), MISA-Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) challenging the legality of sections 79 and 80 of AIPPA, which deals with the compulsory accreditation of journalists, optional accreditation of part time or freelance journalists, prohibition of the accreditation of non- citizens and with issues of abuse of journalistic privileges in relation to publication of falsehoods and injurious statements respectively.
Mangota’s admissions however came at the backdrop of his earlier statement concerning the same issue on inherent repressive legislation Zimbabwe, which he made on the 13th of November 2009 in response to concerns raised by the South African Human Rights Commission, the Zimbabwe NGO Forum on Human Rights and by the Human rights Institute of Southern Africa (HURISA) over the continued human rights situation in Zimbabwe. In his response, Mangota had contented before the same audience at the commission, that the problematic aspects of these laws had “since been dealt with” following the outcome of the 2002, fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe by the commission. He went on to urge the Zimbabwe NGO Forum on human rights to stop lobbying the ACHPR but to instead lobby its own legislators to remove these laws from the statute books.
Following statements by Misa-Zimbabwe wherein it raised concerns over “stalled media reforms” in the country and the concern raised by MMPZ over the government of Zimbabwe’s non-compliance with the commission’s ruling that section 79 and 80 of AIPPA be repealed and the delay by the president in the final constitution of the ZMC, another member of the government of Zimbabwe delegation Stewart Nyakotyo informed the commission that “media issues in Zimbabwe are being addressed by the GNU and as part of its processes, parliament is seized with these issues and is dealing with them.” Nyakotyo went on to inform the commission that as regards the stated delays to the constitution of the ZMC, the parliament of Zimbabwe again has “been seized with the process and recommendations have been forwarded to the president…………for us, it is work in progress and we would like to have this placed on record that there are no delays as such.”
Meanwhile, following the government of Zimbabwe’s invitation during the 45th ordinary session for the commission to undertake a promotional mission to Zimbabwe during its intersession, Zimbabwe’s country rapporteur to the commission, Commissioner Musa Ngary Bitaye apologized on behalf of the commission for their failure to fulfill the mission despite the government of Zimbabwe’s invitation on two different occasions both of which the commissioners found incompatible with their schedules and he asked the government of Zimbabwe to extend another invitation to the commission. The said mission was supposed to comprise amongst others of the special rappoteur on freedom of expression and access to information and the special rapportuer on prisons and conditions of detention in Africa. This was confirmed by the government of Zimbabwe representative Mangota who again extended Zimbabwe’s invitation to the commission to come on the said promotional visit, which invitation was accepted by the commission on dates to be arranged and agreed on.

Comments (0)

Only registered users can write comments!

YourZim Login