|
Back to Index
Statement
on the launch of the regional State of the Media report
MISA-Zimbabwe
May 03, 2007
The Media Institute
of Southern Africa (MISA) will again this year be releasing its
annual publication, So This Is Democracy?: State of the media in
Southern Africa in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day on May
3. This is the 13th consecutive year in which MISA has issued this
publication which records incidents of media freedom violations
monitored by MISA in the previous year. The current edition therefore
details media freedom violations in 2006.
MISA issued
144 alerts in 2006 about press freedom violations in 11 SADC countries.
The figure marked a decrease of 7,6 per cent from the previous year
(155). This however is an increase of 7 per cent over the 84 alerts
issued in 1994, when MISA first began monitoring press freedom violations
in the sub-continent.
The countries
monitored include Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In the regional
overview MISA's Regional Specialist for Media Freedom Monitoring,
Zoé Titus, points out that the death of two journalists in
Angola, Augusto Sebastiao Domingos Pedro and Benicio Wedeinge, have
left an indelible mark on the psyche of Angolan journalists.
"Official
investigations are slow and, while authorities are convinced that
these are random incidents unrelated to the work of the journalists,
the incidents have left an indelible mark on the psyche of Angolan
journalists", she says.
She spoke at
length about the worldwide debate following the publication of cartoons
depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Supporters of the ban on the publication
of the cartoons argued that the cartoons constituted hate speech,
missing the fundamental constitutional point that the media had
the right and duty to publish the cartoons, in order to inform the
public as to the nature of the debate then raging across the world
over the cartoons, she says.
Breakdown
of the 2006 alerts
A
breakdown of the 144 alerts issued last year show that 2 journalists
were killed, 12 media practitioners were attacked or beaten, one
had its properties raided, 22 were detained, three were sentenced,
24 were threatened, 1 was expelled, 24 incidences of censorship
were reported, 30 cases of legal action were recorded - where journalists
faced legal action or where legislation was passed that affected
the media, 17 victories were recorded and a further 8 incidents
were reported that proved a violation of freedom of expression that
did not necessarily affect the media.
Regional
trends
MISA
witnessed an overall decrease in 'conventional' media
freedom violations such as physical attacks, arrests and detentions
and outright attempts to censor media workers. However, a steady
increase in criminal and civil defamation suits has created an environment
where self-preservation through self-censorship has become common
practice.
The majority
of criminal defamation cases in the region are in Angola, Lesotho,
Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a prime example
of the criminalization of media, reinforced by the promulgation
of the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public
Order Security Act (POSA) in 2002. It is a criminal offence
to publish "false" information prejudicial to the state,
or false information adversely affecting the economic interests
of Zimbabwe or which undermines public confidence in a law enforcement
agency, the prison services or the defence forces of the country.
Over 80 journalists have been arrested and three newspapers have
been closed down using AIPPA and POSA.
Civil defamation
continues to be an effective way of curtailing the role of the press
as a public watchdog, by economic attrition. In all jurisdictions
in Southern Africa, there is no ceiling on the amount that can be
demanded by the plaintiff. This makes civil defamation potentially
more damaging than criminal defamation as media institutions are
often crippled by the exorbitant legal costs that are often incurred
in such matters. In this respect the media in Botswana, Lesotho
and Zambia especially face the legal threat of disproportionately
high awards given to civil defamation litigants against publishers.
Selected
country highlights
Angola
On
February 2 2006, Angola's National Assembly approved a new
press law, which entered into force on May 15. The new law still
contains elements that fall short of international human rights
standards. It defines certain conduct as "criminal"
in unclear and sweeping terms, and establishes excessive penalties
for those crimes, including defamation; it includes provisions that
may result in excessive limitations on media freedom; and it provides
for the establishment of licensing procedures for private television
and radio broadcasters that are largely subject to the discretion
of governmental bodies.
In addition,
too many key principles and procedures of the law are left for further
implementing laws and regulations and no transitional arrangements
are defined to address problems that may arise in the application
of the law pending adoption of the implementing legislation. The
lack of such laws and regulations makes several provisions of the
new press law largely inoperable.
South
Africa
There
was a significant increase in violations in South Africa, largely
due to a number of high profile court battles that captured the
attention of the region. The epic Jacob Zuma trial received unprecedented
media coverage and commentary, which did not go unnoticed by the
presiding Judge Willem van der Merwe, who in his judgment chastised
those who had breached the sub judice rule. In so doing, Judge Van
der Merwe set the tone for what was to follow: a barrage of civil
defamation claims by Zuma against a long list of publishers, editors,
newspaper titles, reporters and a cartoonist for their coverage
and comment on his rape trial.
The debate around South Africa's Film and Publications Act
is set to proceed in 2007. Media freedom watchdogs have warned that
print and broadcast media could be the subject of strict censorship
if changes to the act proposed by the home affairs department became
law.
The Film and
Publications Act regulates films and publications by censorship,
and currently has a clause that exempts the news media from its
provisions, enabling print and broadcast news to operate without
interference. The proposed amendment includes bringing news media
under the act, which means both print and broadcast media would
be subjected to the dictates of the Film and Publications Board,
a censorship body. As such the effect of the amendment would be
the subjection of the media to prepublication censorship.
Zimbabwe
In an already repressive media environment where such laws as AIPPA,
POSA and the Broadcasting
Services Act (BSA) remain firmly entrenched in the statutes,
Zimbabwean authorities tabled the Interception of Communications
Bill 2006. It empowers the chief of defence intelligence, the director-general
of the Central Intelligence Organisation, the Commissioner of Police
and the Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to
intercept telephonic, e-mail and cellular telephone messages.
The African Media Barometer
At the end of 2006 MISA and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) completed
the first round of African Media Barometer (AMB) surveys in the
11 SADC countries where MISA is active: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. The AMB is an assessment tool of the national
media environments. A collective panel of media and civil society
representatives assess their national environments according to
42 defined indicators. The benchmarks used are largely lifted from
the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights'
Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression, adopted in 2002.
None of the
countries under review have a media landscape that rated as predominantly
free and independent. In southern Africa, South Africa came closest
to this standard. For the rest, a lack of confidence prevails in
the national broadcasters, and their relevance in the promotion
of participatory development and democratisation. National and regional
campaigns for broadcasting reform should therefore be prioritised.
A Year of Hard Knocks
In
all, 2006 has been a year of hard knocks for the media in SADC.
Whilst numerous victories were recorded with respect to legal judgements,
these came at great cost to media institutions and individuals.
May 3 is celebrated
this year at a time when the media in Zimbabwe is facing its darkest
hour. The deepening crisis in that country requires a level of solidarity
by all journalists in the region for it has become apparent that
we cannot look to our governments for relief.
Journalists
and free expression activists should therefore rally behind one
another especially where it concerns the unlawful arrest, detention,
assault and torture of colleagues as these actions not only go beyond
the hazards that come with the terrain of the profession, but also
blatantly violate the charters, conventions and declarations that
protect media freedom and freedom of expression.
Features
in the book:
The 270-page
publication is in book form and includes the following features:
- Country
overviews written by independent authors from each country;
- An appraisal
of the state of the media in the region by Zoé Titus (Regional
Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring);
- A regional
overview of Gender, HIV and AIDS and the Media in southern Africa;
- A list of
MISA's previous annual Press Freedom Award winners;
- Graphics
showing breakdowns of the 2006 alerts as well as the increase
in alerts from 1994 to 2006;
- African
Media Barometer country reports for Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe
- Graphics
providing snap-shot sector scores for the African Media Barometer
in the aforementioned countries;
- Information
on how to classify and report media freedom violations;
- Information
about MISA and its regional programmes.
- Contact
details of MISA's national chapters for the reporting of
press freedom violations;
MISA thanks
all its national chapters in the 11 SADC countries for the contributions
they made in the reporting of media freedom violations in their
countries to the MISA Regional Secretariat in Windhoek. These violations
form the basis of many regional and international campaigns to draw
attention to media freedom abuses in various countries and to provide
protection for media practitioners who are under threat.
Copies
of the book may be ordered from: The Communications Manager,
Windhoek, Namibia, Tel. +264 61 232975, Fax. 248016, e-mail: communications@misa.org
or alternatively downloaded from our website: http://www.misa.org
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
