Blaming the messenger

Feb 05, 2002

AT THE third attempt President Robert Mugabe has pushed tough legislation to curb the media through the Zimbabwe parliament.

AT THE third attempt President Robert Mugabe has pushed tough legislation to curb the media through the Zimbabwe parliament. All journalists now have to be licenced annually. Foreign correspondents are not allowed to be based permanently in Zimbabwe. No news organisation is allowed foreign funding. Journalists are forbidden from reporting meetings of Cabinet or other government bodies. Prison sentences await those who breach the new media law’s provisions.The system of licencing journalists has failed to take off in Uganda mainly because it is very difficult to define who is and who is not a journalist. Would columnists like Mary Okurut and John Nagenda have to be licenced? How would newspapers handle copy filed by news agencies like Reuters if the story reported events in Uganda? It is also potentially discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional to impose different standards for ‘journalists’ and ‘non-journalists’ who write in the newspapers. At least Uganda was motivated by wanting all journalists to be well-trained graduates. Zimbabwe’s law is motivated solely by the desire for political thought control. The other provisions are just as bad. Foreign correspondents who are permanently based in a country are more likely to make objective informed reports than correspondents on a flying visit with preconceived opinions. All newspapers can benefit from foreign funding, especially when it is for advanced training at international universities. The ban on reporting Cabinet and government meetings would not be necessary if unhappy ministers and officials were not leaking the information in the first place. Mugabe’s media act is merely papering over the cracks of the crisis that is tearing Zimbabwe apart. Mugabe is making the fatal mistake of blaming the messenger for the message.

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