AudiencScapes

Zimbabwe’s president is eager to hold elections soon. The SADC, civil society groups and advocates for a free press are all urging him and his party to implement media reforms first.

By Tawanda Karombo

(Harare, Zimbabwe ) The mediator in Zimbabwe’s political crisis, South African President Jacob Zuma, has demanded that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party factor in media reforms as part of the road map to free and fair elections. These elections are expected to usher in a new administration and end the inclusive government’s two-year tenure, which expires next month.

Mugabe, backed by his party’s decision to hold early elections in 2011, has been in combative mode lately. Saying that he wants elections as soon as possible, he has denounced the unity government agreement he signed two years ago with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and another smaller breakaway faction of the MDC. Zuma had to take a hard-line stance to stop Mugabe from forging ahead with plans to hold the elections before the finalization of the process to craft a new people-driven constitution.

Zuma insisted to Mugabe that he wants the current government to reform the media – a key democratic institution -- before holding elections, among other issues he wants the leaders of both Zanu PF and the two MDC factions to address. Although the inclusive government, which established the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), managed to license a few private print media players to run independent newspapers, there has been no positive development regarding the broadcasting environment. Even then, as recently reported by AudienceScapes, only one of the new media players has begun operations.

“President Zuma wants the unity government to first reform the media sector among other key areas such as human rights and the electoral system to ensure that the space within which the elections are going to be held is democratic,” said a source privy to the negotiations. “He has also impressed on the parties to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that the constitution, which will guarantee media and freedom rights, be put in place first.”

Attacks on Zimbabwe’s media have risen in recent months. Soldiers in Masvingo, one of Zimbabwe’s smaller towns, have banned The Mirror, a provincial newspaper, from being distributed in the town. The Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa http://www.misa.org/, a journalism advocacy group, reported in its 2010 “state of the media” report that violations and attacks on the media intensified toward the end of 2010 and have sounded the alarm that the trend is likely to escalate and worsen in the new year.

Zuma and a Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on politics, defense and security are due to meet later this month to discuss the Zimbabwe issue, which is slowly deteriorating into a crisis. Zuma’s team is likely to put pressure on Mugabe’s Zanu PF party to stop the harassment of journalists among other media and human rights violations, according to the source, who chose to remain confidential.

Earlier this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Zimbabwe government to reform the media sector. “We call on the (inclusive) government (of Zimbabwe) to repeal the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (POSA), which would be in line with media reform pledges made under the power-sharing government,” said Mohamed Keita, CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator.

Reforming the constrained broadcasting sector before holding elections is the priority for Zuma and advocates for independent media. “The media is a democratic institution that plays an important democratic role in any society,” said Thomas Kwaramba, a local civic society group leader. “We want the broadcast media laws to be reformed and private players like community radios, commercial and other broadcast players to be allowed to operate and give a diverse view of what is happening in Zimbabwe.”

Tawanda Karombo is a freelance journalist living in Zimbabwe, covering southern Africa. He can be reached at tawakarombo@yahoo.co.uk .

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