Government pushes controversial bills through parliament

President Robert Mugabe’s party pushed two tough bills on broadcasting and political fundraising through Zimbabwe’s parliament in the early hours of Wednesday, AFP reported. The bills were passed after marathon debate that split the house along party lines. Both bills require Mugabe’s signature before becoming law, although he had already used special powers to impose the broadcast rules six months ago. Under the broadcast act, broadcast licenses issued by the government are to be valid for up to two years and may be withdrawn at any time by the ministry of information. Licenses issued to designated “community radio stations” stipulate no “political matter” may be broadcast. Independent stations cannot have foreign investors as shareholders and their programmes must contain a stringent 75 percent Zimbabwean content produced within Zimbabwe. Opponents of the broadcasting restrictions argued the laws formally endorsed a presidential ban on two independent radio stations shut down by armed police last October. The two stations, Capital Radio and FM100, went on air for several days after the Supreme Court ruled the state Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s two-decade monopoly breached constitutional rights to free expression. The accompanying political fundraising act bans foreign funding of political parties. The government has alleged the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has received substantial donations from abroad. The fact that debate on the bills raged until almost 3.00 am on Wednesday was something of a novelty in Zimbabwe. Until the MDC won nearly half the elected seats in last June’s parliamentary elections, parliament was dominated by a docile ZANU-PF.