Ndlovu threatens harsher measures against media

By Our Correspondent

BULAWAYO, May 7, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - Zimbabwe’s Information Minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, has said the government is plans to tighten controls on the media further, while limiting the accreditation of foreign journalists ahead of the expected run-off presidential election.

He said foreign journalists who were accredited to cover the March 29 elections had undermined the controversial polls through their coverage.

Ndlovu said the foreign journalists had filed “hostile coverage” and the government will use such coverage as the criterion to deny foreign journalists accreditation to cover the expected run-off.

He was responding to questions from journalists on whether the government would widen the accreditation of foreign journalists to cover the second round of the presidential election. Ndlovu spoke during World Press Freedom Day celebrations at the Bulawayo Press Club on Saturday evening.

“The government will be tighter and tougher this time in the accreditation of foreign journalists for the up-coming run-off,” Ndlovu said. “Most of the foreign journalists who were accredited to cover the March 29 elections had pre-conceived agendas.

“They had a specific purpose and came to the country to undermine the elections. The government can run the elections without them and the government will not make such a mistake when looking at their applications to cover the run-off. Foreign media that provided hostile coverage and undermined the elections will not be accredited again to cover the run-off.”

Zimbabwean authorities barred most foreign media from covering the March 29 elections and warned that they would deal severely with journalists who sneaked into the country to report illegally.

A number of foreign journalists did sneak into the country but the risks involved were highlighted when some of them were arrested.  

Among those arrested were New York Times correspondent, Barry Bearak, British journalist Stephen Bevan, Times of London journalists, Michael Clayton and two South African satellite television technicians, Sipho Maseko and Abdulla Gaibee.

Ndlovu defended the ongoing arrest of freelance Zimbabwean journalists and said the government would continue to maintain its tight grip on the media through harsh media laws “to instill discipline among journalists”.

Ndlovu’s growing hard-line stance appears to be motivated by a need to keep abreast of his confrontational deputy, Bright Matonga, who over recent weeks has become the darling of the foreign correspondents, who seek his opinion as Zanu-PF spokesman, which he is not and as government spokesman, which officially he also is not.

That has not deterred Matonga from being the self-appointed defender of the beleaguered Mugabe regime or from issuing threats against the victorious MDC since Zanu-PF and President Mugabe lost the March elections. Apparently, not to be outdone by the youthful Matonga, Ndlovu, once hailed as a reasonable Minister of Information, used the occasion of the Press Freedom Day celebrations in Bulawayo to issue his own threats again journalists local and foreign.

Ndlovu is said to be the patron of the Bulawayo Press Club whose executive committee comprises journalists from the state-controlled media. He is a regular guest of honour at the club, where he is reputed to make the occasional generous donation.

On Friday was requested to leave a World Press Freedom day function organised by private media journalists in Bulawayo. Ndlovu who presented himself at the function as the patron of the Bulawayo Club was requested to leave before he addressed journalists. The function had been organised by the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), which is in the forefront of campaigning for press freedom and media diversity in Zimbabwe. 

“There is nothing like absolute freedom in journalism,” Ndlovu said, once safely ensconced in the premises of the Bulawayo Press Club on Saturday.

“There has to be censorship by the government to instill responsible journalism. Some journalists break the law under the guise of press freedom and get arrested. Some journalists for example in the private media are undisciplined and stubborn. That is why they get arrested.”

Away from the Press Club Zimbabwean journalists called for more media freedom during the World Press Day celebrations. The key issues raised were the repeal of repressive media laws, radical media reforms and an end to the use of “inflammatory messages and hate language” mostly in the state-controlled media.

Zimbabwe has some of the toughest media laws and a terrible record of harassment of journalists and repression of the media.

Some of the hostile laws include the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Interception of Communications Act, the Broadcasting Services Act, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act..