Harare – Information Minister Jonathan Moyo plans to tighten further Zimbabwe’s already restrictive media laws by banning local journalists from working for foreign media, according to proposed new legislation gazetted by the government last week. Journalists carrying out their work without being registered with the government-appointed Media and Information Commission will be fined or jailed for not more than two years under the proposed new regulations. The new regulations will be tabled in Parliament when it resumes next month. Section 83 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that governs the operations of journalists and media companies only prohibits journalists from working without being licensed by the government commission. The section will be amended to provide for a penalty of a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years. A new section will be added to the media Act which will read: “Registered journalists will only work for media houses under which they are registered and are not allowed to work for outside media.”

Moyo also wants to amend Section 40 of the Act which requires an association of journalists and another one of media companies to nominate a representative each to the seven-member state media commission. Under the new changes either the journalists or media companies could nominate the two members of the commission. Media companies could nominate the two members of the commission sidelining journalists or vice versa. Banning local journalists from working for foreign media could finally impose a blackout on Zimbabwe. The government has already expelled from the country all foreign journalists. International news agencies Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France Press still have bureaus in Zimbabwe. The South African Broadcasting Corporation also has a correspondent in the country. But all of the international media have small teams of one or two people and nearly all depend on local journalists to cover the entire country.

Media organisations and journalists’ unions castigated the proposed new regulations saying they imposed further hurdles on an already severely shackled media. The Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa said: “We have been hoping for amendments that would make the (media) law fair and create a conducive environment for journalists to work in. But these amendments rather make the law more draconian.” Zimbabwe Union of Journalists secretary general, Forster Dongozi, said: “What we have been calling for, is a total change to the draconian media law. There must be broader involvement of the stakeholders if any changes to it are going to be meaningful and beneficial to the media, which is currently in a bad state.” In a statement the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe said: “These amendments will make the media law more sinister and therefore are against our calls for consultation in efforts to save the media fraternity currently under siege.” The government has shut down three newspapers over the past year for breaching its media laws.

From Zim Online (SA), 3 September
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com