Ruling awaited on broadcasting regulations

Zimbabwean Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa is to rule next week on the validity of a Parliamentary Legal Committee report which declared invalid a set of controversial broadcasting regulations introduced last year. The three-member committee was tasked by parliament to examine the regulations which were published on 4 October 2000. The regulations were a government response to a Supreme Court ruling which granted permission to Capital Radio, a private broadcaster, to operate. The court had declared that the monopoly on broadcasting services created by Section 27 of the country's Broadcasting Act was inconsistent with Section 20 of the Constitution. It said that the monopoly of the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation was therefore invalid as it vested in the ZBC the exclusive privilege of conducting a broadcasting service in Zimbabwe. The court also ruled that Section 14 of the Radio Communication Services Act was inconsistent with Section 20 of the constitution because it prohibited any one, other than the ZBC, from possessing or operating a radio station for the purpose of conducting a broadcasting service. In response, the government formulated tough regulations for potential broadcasters - regulations which make it extremely difficult to qualify for a licence or to operate a radio station. The state-controlled 'Herald' reported on Friday that the legal committee, consisting of Masvingo South MP Eddison Zvobgo (ZANU-PF), Bulawayo North-East MP Professor Welshman Ncube (MDC) and Buhera South MP Kumbirai Kangai (ZANU-PF) said in their report that the regulations were unconstitutional and unjustifiable in a democratic society. However, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, has asked the speaker of parliament to declare the report null and void because the committee did not follow proper procedures in preparing it, the 'Herald' reported. Chinamasa said the committee's time to deliberate and report on the issue to parliament had long since expired and that it had not produced minutes of its meetings in "wholesale disregard" of parliamentary regulations. He also said that the adverse report had in fact been drafted by Ncube in his party offices when parliamentary regulations stated that the report should be prepared by the chairman of the committee, Zvobgo. Chinamasa, who is also the Leader of the House, asked Mnangagwa to conduct an internal inquiry into the committee's deliberations with a view to taking corrective action. Mnangagwa is expected to rule on the issue next Thursday. Meanwhile, Ncube told IRIN on Friday that all three members had agreed on the report. "Ultimately our role as a committee is to give our opinion to parliament and that particular instrument of legislation is in contravention of the constitution. No self-respecting lawyer will say that it is not," he said. Ncube, general-secretary of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused ZANU-PF of "buying time" to prevent any independent broadcaster from going on air before the next election. He said it was clear that ZANU-PF planned on using its majority in parliament to approve the controversial regulations. This would force those opposing the regulations to seek redress in the courts, which would take time, he said. He added that it was also possible for the party to present a bill in parliament and enact the regulations before the ones passed in October expired. If the legal committee's report was accepted it would open the way for independent broadcasters to obtain licences and to operate in Zimbabwe. Zoe Titus, researcher at the Media Institute of Southern Africa which is based in Windhoek, told IRIN that MISA believed from the beginning that the intention of the bill was to create an information blackout in Zimbabwe before elections. Minister of State for Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo was not available for comment when IRIN tried to contact him.