Scepticism shrouds ZMC

Brian Mangwende, News Editor

ZIMBABWE’s media landscape is in urgent need of reform. Its shortcomings have been elaborated widely but nothing of significance has been done to address them.

To all intent and purpose it seems there is no articulate programme to reform the media sector despite the undertaking made by the country's political leadership when they appended their signatures on the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in September 2008.
Despite the impediments still stifling the media, its role has not been diminished.
There is no doubt that the media, which is commonly referred to as the fourth estate, plays a central role in any democracy by maintaining checks and balances.
A vibrant media would therefore be of immense value to Zimbabwe.
However, political and business interference and bias by the state media have undermined the role of the media.
Several journalists, frustrated by the gag on the media, have left the country for greener pastures, resulting in the deterioration of journalistic standards locally. Even Information Min-ister, Webster Shamu in May last year at the All Stakeholders’ Media Conference in Kariba, admitted that the media was heavily polarised along party lines and that it was time to change the landscape, an onerous challenge for the newly formed Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC).
Is the newly gazetted ZMC up to the task of changing the operating environment and guaranteeing press freedom, freedom of expression, pluralism, media self-regulation and facilitate the re-orientation of media practitioners?
The task before the commission is a daunting one.
Zimbabwe is currently ranked very lowly under media reform index listings. Therefore it is going to be a bumpy road for the commission to tilt the scales the other way.
Analysts said the recent gazetting of names of commissioners to sit on the statutory ZMC is a positive move, but remain wary of the future actions of the commission. Pre-sident Robert Mugabe, a fortnight ago, ann-ounced the names of commissioners in line with the dictates of the GPA whose implementation has been fraught with controversy.
But doubts and skepticism remain high within the journalistic fraternity and publishing industry over whether the commissioners, wh-ose interviews were also mired in controversy, would be able to deliver with political hawks hovering over them.
Concerns are that the interviewing panel awarded points to candidates along party lines, effectively discrediting the process and leaving questions in many people’s minds regarding the suitability of the appointees.
This led to a deadlock, which was referred to President Mugabe who obliged by picking his preferred commissioners from the list.
Those appointed to          the body include former Zimbabwe Bro-adcasting Corporation (ZBC) news anchor, Godfrey Majonga (chairperson); former Editor-in-Chief of The Financial Gazette Nqobile Nyathi (deputy chair); former ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa; former president of the Zim-babwe Union of Journalists, Matthew Takaona; journalist-cum lawyer Chris Mhike and journalist Miriam Ma-dziwa.
Others are former ZBC chief executive officer, Henry Mura-dzikwa; former Zim-babwe Newspapers board member, Lawton Hikwa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe division chief, Millicent Mombeshora.
The ZMC is the successor regulatory au-thority to the defunct Media and Information Commission born out of a draconian piece of the amended Access to Information and Prot-ection of    Privacy Act (AIPPA).
Using the repressive AIPPA, the previous administration shut down newspapers namely The Daily News, The Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune and The Weekly Times among others and hounded the British Broadcasting Corporation and Cable News Network from the country.
Media houses that were seen as agents of the so-called regime change agenda were only allowed to operate freely in Zimbabwe mid last year following the formation of the inclusive government.
Chairperson of the Zimbabwe National Editor’s Forum, Iden Wetherell, said alth-ough he welcomed the formation of the commission, he doubted its effectiveness arguing that there has generally been lack of progress on media reform.
Wetherell said the inclusive government has not given journalists forced to live in the diaspora any assurances for their safe and unobstructed return from exile.
“There is not a lot of room for optimism given the tussles in the inclusive government,” he said.
“We welcome the formation of the ZMC, but I doubt whether it will be effective. Zimbabwe media practitioners in the diaspora are still scared to come back home because the Minister of Information has not given them any assurances that they would be safe upon return.
“We hope the formation of the commission will lead to some measures that will   guarantee freedom of expression.”
Academic and publisher, Ibbo Mandaza, said the establishment of the ZMC constitutes a good start given the expectations that once the commission is up and running, everything else will fall into place.
“The commission should understand the expectations of the country,” Mandaza said. “They (commissioners) have to allow for media space to expand.
“They must resist any attempts to frustrate their work in pursuant of their goals.
“It won't be easy given the backdrop of a heavily constrained media environment in the past years where political interference was the order of the day.”
Journalist, Pedzisai Ruhanya of Crisis Coalition, said the ZMC should ensure that there is media diversity and pluralism “nothing mo-re nothing less.”
He said the days of harassing scribes during the course of their work should come to an end.
“It’s one thing to gazette the ZMC and another to see it operating with a view to open up the media space and allow for competition,” Ruhanya said.
“We expect them (commissioners) to overhaul the media environment, address the issue of repressive laws currently in place such as AIPPA and sanction those who harass and attack journalists. The commission has to represent media practitioners and publishers not the interests of leaders of the GPA. We need to see those closed publication operating once again and those awaiting registration registered.”
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Zimbabwe Chapter) says although there has been a decrease in the number of media violations, there has been no meaningful progress towards the realisation of media reform as laws such as AIPPA, the Broadcasting Services Act, the Interception of Communications Act, the Public Order and Security Act, and the Criminal Law (Codifica-tion and Reform) Act are still intact.