Media watchdog slams harassment of journalists

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) on Tuesday condemned the Zimbabwean security details’ harassment of journalists covering Monday’s stalled talks to end the country’s political crisis, and called for the urgent repeal of Zimbabwe’s tough media laws that restrict media workers from freely exercising their right to work.

The Zimbabwe chapter of MISA reported that several journalists were barred from covering the meeting organised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) security troika held in Harare on Monday.

The meeting was seeking to break the impasse over the allocation of ministerial positions between the ruling ZANU PF and the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

“Security details manning the entrance to the premises of the Rainbow Towers Hotel where the talks were being held turned away a number of freelance journalists who are not accredited with the statutory Media and Information Commission (MIC), demanding they produce MIC accreditation cards for them to cover the event,” MISA said.

It noted that accreditation of journalists by MIC was no longer compulsory following the December 2007 amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The refusal of entry of the journalists comes two weeks after an official from the Ministry of Information and Publicity approached freelance journalists, Brian Hungwe and Peta Thornycroft, at the same venue and ordered them to leave the hotel as they were waiting for the outcome of the talks being facilitated by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

“MISA-Zimbabwe calls upon the Parliament of Zimbabwe to repeal AIPPA as a matter of urgency as it poses serious violations to media freedom and freedom of expression and also vitiates against the 2002 Banjul Declaration on the Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa which frowns upon statutory regulation of the media as is the case in Zimbabwe under the MIC,” the media rights body said.

The Banjul Declaration states that self-regulation is the best system of instilling professionalism in the media. – APA