New threat to Zimbabwe newspapers

New threat to Zimbabwe newspapers

• Mediagate journalist scoops CNN award

• Zimbabwe 'Mediagate' journalist up for CNN award

• UK Commons award winner Muleya honoured

• Muleya scoops Commons award

• Mugabe thugs threaten to shoot Independent journalists

• Reporter Muleya attacked

• Mugabe undermining judiciary

By Staff Reporter

THE Zimbabwean government has taken the first steps to shut down the two last remaining independent newspapers in the country.

The Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard newspapers could be shut down if a government plot to strip Trevor Ncube, the newspapers’ publisher, of his Zimbabwean citizenship succeeds.

Zimbabwean media laws preclude foreigners and non-resident Zimbabweans from owning shares in media outlets, although they may be minority shareholders in companies which own media shares.

Registar General Tobaiwa Mudede, in court papers filed this week, argues that Ncube is a Zambian by descent and as such he was required to renounce that country's citizenship in terms of Zambian law to qualify for a Zimbabwean passport.

Ncube, who is also the publisher of the South African Mail and Guardian newspaper, is fighting the withdrawal of his citizenship. He applied for a court order within three days invalidating the withdrawal of his passport arguing that it was unlawful.

He also wants the Passport Office stopped from interfering with his possession and use of his Zimbabwean passport.

No date has yet been set for a hearing.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) which was signed into law in 2003 allocates very substantial regulatory powers over media outlets and individual journalists to the Media and Information Commission (MIC), a body which is subject to extensive direct and indirect government control.

Under the law, all media outlets and any business disseminating media products must obtain a registration certificate from the MIC. Accreditation must be obtained from the MIC before anyone may work as a journalist, effectively a form of licensing.

Foreigners and non-resident Zimbabweans are precluded from owning shares in Zimbabwean media outlets and local and foreign media outlets may only employ Zimbabwean citizens or permanent residents.

The law has been used to shut down several newspapers critical of President Robert Mugabe including the Daily News and its sister paper, The Daily News on Sunday.

The Tribune and the Weekly Times were also shut down while the Financial Gazette, Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror were taken over by the intelligence services in a publicly-funded covert move.

Ncube was one of several leading government critics who had their passports temporarily withdrawn last year under a new government directive later struck down by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu of the High Court.

Ncube contends that his father, while Zambian born, was a bona fide citizen of Zimbabwe and that, plus his own Zimbabwean birth, should make him automatically Zimbabwean without further requirements.

"There is no entitlement on my part of Zambian citizenship merely because my father was born there. He was a citizen of Zimbabwe at the time of my birth as will appear from his national registration in Zimbabwe," Ncube said through his lawyers, Scanlen and Holderness.

Ncube also argues that his mother is Zimbabwean by birth, while his father is a Zambian but with a Zimbabwean national registration identity.

Mudede filed papers with the High Court Friday challenging Ncube’s bid for an order compelling him to re-issue him a passport and stop all interference with his travel and enjoyment of his citizenship rights.

Mudede said: “Ncube is failing to understand that his loss of Zimbabwean citizenship is by the operation of the law and not through the discretion of the respondent.

"Is he asking the judge to grant him citizenship? It is up to the government to grant or not to grant citizenship.”

The Media Institute of Southern Africa has been critical of the Zimbabwean government’s use and application of Aippa, insisting that the law only targets privately-owned papers critical of Mugabe’s regime.

Misa describes Aippa as a “leading weapon of the government and the ruling Zanu PF party in their ongoing campaign to stifle independent media reporting in Zimbabwe.”

JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com