Civic groups unhappy with broadcasting act

Civic groups in Zimbabwe said the recently-passed Broadcasting Services Act 2001, gives Information and Publicity Minister of State Jonathan Moyo excessive powers, the ‘Daily News’ reported at the weekend. The groups said the new Act, currently awaiting President Robert Mugabe’s signature, would enable the minister to control any new radio and television stations he may wish to approve. Anthony Brooks, a Harare lawyer representing Capital Radio, an aspiring radio station, said that a constitutional challenge to the Act is now in progress and there are numerous parts of the legislation that they are challenging. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the Zimbabwe National Students Union and the Media Monitoring project all described the new Act as “draconian”. “The Act is a recipe for continued state-control of radio and television, leading to the silencing, not the liberation or amplifying, of the many unheard voices in our society,” said the civics groups in a joint statement. The groups added that the Act failed to respect and protect the rights to information and communication as enshrined in the constitution of Zimbabwe and the Southern African and International Conventions of which Zimbabwe is a signatory.