|
SOME light filtered into the country’s battered media landscape on Friday with the gazetting of the new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), but players in the media industry are not celebrating yet.
The Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu on Friday announced that the ZMC members had been appointed with effect from February 11, in accordance with section 100N of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
As announced by the chief secretary to the President and Cabinet on December 21 last year, the gazette names Danhiko project deputy director Godfrey Majonga as the ZMC chairperson, deputised by National University of Science and Technology (Nust) lecturer and former Daily News editor Nqobile Nyathi.
The committee members are Chris Mhike, a journalist and lawyer, former Zimbabwean ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa, freelance journalist Miriam Madziwa, former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings chief executive Henry Muradzikwa, former Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president Mathew Takaona, Reserve Bank division head Millicent Mombeshora, and Nust lecturer Lawton Hikwa.
The gazette has raised expectations that the commission will immediately get to work and register new and old media houses.
While eager to see how this joint political project will work, representatives of journalists and publishers said the ZMC faces a mammoth task reforming the media industry. There are still many questions over the organisation’s commitment to instituting reforms.
ZimInd Chief Executive Raphael Khumalo said the gazette was a “welcome relief”, but expressed concern over the delayed gazetting of the commission, named on December 21 last year.
“Our immediate expectation is that the commissioners should start working. In fact, they should have already started working, since the gazette states that their appointment is with effect from February 11,” Khumalo said.
“There is no need for them to wait for anything, they should just go ahead and put in place the necessary administrative structures. We expect them to start inviting applications soon.”
The gazette effectively paves the way for the ZimInd’s long-awaited new daily paper, NewsDay to be licensed.
The paper was initially scheduled to hit the streets in November last year, but had to wait much longer following delays in constituting the ZMC.
The initial application for the paper to start publishing could not be processed, with Majonga indicating they were still awaiting the setting up of administrative structures to handle the applications.
Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights (ZJHR), Dumisani Muleya said the gazetting of the names of ZMC members was “a significant step forward”.
“Hopefully they will soon start taking and doing their work seriously,” Muleya said.
“Their immediate task is to license newspapers that want to come into the market, license those that were closed and create an enabling environment for the media in general to thrive.
“It is however still worrying that this commission is a partisan political creation. It is staffed with political appointees who have narrow political mandates to defend the interests of their parties rather than the public interest.”
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe chapter director, Nhlanhla Ngwenya welcomed the gazetting as “the first step towards comprehensive media reforms”.
“We hope the government will complement this development with the repeal of such laws as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), and other obnoxious provisions in other Acts which hinder media freedom,” Ngwenya said.
The Deputy Information Minister Jameson Timba allayed the fears of media players, saying the commissioners “should now hit the ground running and start discharging their duties”.
“They don’t need to be sworn in, the gazetting is enough,” Timba said.
During the era of the Tafataona Mahoso-led Media and Information Commission, several publications were closed.
These include The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune and The Weekly Times.
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
