By Farai Gwenhure
Confusion reigned within the Zimbabwe Media Commission after its commissioners contradicted each other while responding to questions posed by journalists on the issue of the establishment of a complaints board when the voluntary media council of Zimbabwe was already in place.
Asked why the commission wanted to establish a board to deal with complains against journalists, when VMCZ was doing the same job, ZMC Chairman Godfrey Majonga put forward the idea of incorporating VMCZ in the statutes to act as an extension of the commission but a fellow commissioner, Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa thought otherwise.
“We work as a commission guided by the existing laws we are not legislators who are there to amend the Law therefore we do not see VMCZ being an extension of ZMC,”Mutsvangwa. Journalists who had gathered at a local hotel to celebrate world press freedom day attributed the contradictions in the ZMC to the divisions in the Government of National Unity.
A journalist from The Zimbabwean said, ”The commissioners are political appointees who represent political interests of either MDC or ZANUPF therefore it is not surprising that they are in contrast.”
Scribes also castigated Zimpapers Chief Executive Officer Justin Mutasa who said there is no 100% press freedom in any part of the world suggesting that there was nothing surprising about the draconian laws in Zimbabwe.
“The problem is that he has never been arrested on accusations of criminal defamation or any other case criminalized by either POSA or AIPPA and some other parts of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.
“That is why he is saying the laws should stay just because he believes they safeguard the so called National interests which he is a direct beneficiary to and therefore sees it fit to sacrifice journalists to protect his personal interests,” Donald Rixter Ndlovu a freelance journalist said.
Other speakers at the function who also opposed the idea of media self regulation are Minister of Information and Publicity Webster Shamu who was guest of owner and also ZBC CEO Happison Muchechetere.
The ZMC was formed in 2009 as a replacement to the dreaded MIC to become the new regulatory board in charge of registering newspapers and accrediting journalist as well as overseeing their operations.
