REPRESSIVE ELECTORAL AND MEDIA AMENDMENTS TOP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HARARE 000874 SIPDIS NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER LONDON FOR C. GURNEY PARIS FOR C. NEARY NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ZI SUBJECT: REPRESSIVE ELECTORAL AND MEDIA AMENDMENTS TOP PARLIAMENT AGENDA REF: 02 HARARE 414 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. Parliament resumed on May 6, after a two-month adjournment in which several parliamentary portfolio committees met to discuss proposed legislation. Top among the Bills to be debated when Parliament begins are the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill and the Electoral Amendment Bill. If proposed amendments are passed, the bills would tighten restrictions on the Zimbabwean people and journalists, rights of expression, limit the campaigning ability of opposition parties, and make the electoral process less inclusive. END SUMMARY. -------------- PARLIAMENT OPENS -------------- ¶2. Parliament resumed on May 6, after a two-month adjournment. Top among the bills for debate in this final sitting of the Third Session of the Fifth Parliament are amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill and the Electoral Amendment Bill. The bills were announced in the official Zimbabwe journal--the first step in the bill making process--in October and March 2002, respectively, and are at the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) stage. The Access to Information Bill was referred to the PLC in November and no report has yet been issued. The Electoral Amendment Bill received an adverse report. NOTE: According to the Parliamentary process, bills are fist published (gazetted) in the government gazette at least two weeks before they are introduced in Parliament. After gazetting, the bill is referred to the appropriate parliamentary portfolio committee, which assesses whether the bill is practical and then conducts a hearing with members of the public to get their input. Independent of the portfolio committee, the appropriate minister makes the first reading of the bill before the House and then the bill is referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee--the committee charged with determining the constitutionality of the bill. At the second reading stage, the minister explains the bill, the portfolio committee presents its report, and debate on the bill follows. After the second reading, the House goes through the bill line by line and adopts any changes to it before it proceeds to the third reading when Parliament passes the bill and it goes to the Head of State for assent into law. END NOTE. -------------- AIPPA -------------- ¶3. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) became law in March 2002. The Act places Zimbabwe's independent journalists and media companies under government control and restricts the operation of foreign journalists and media in Zimbabwe. (See Reftel). Critics of the bill contend that it contravenes the constitutional right of freedom of expression and is meant to gag the independent media. The Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) is challenging the constitutionality of AIPPA, but no judgment has yet been rendered by the Supreme Court. IJAZ challenges the accreditation of journalists as being arbitrary and an impediment to journalists practicing their craft. IJAZ also contends that AIPPA puts the journalism profession under government control. Supreme Court Chief Justice Chidyausiku, whose allegiance to President Robert Mugabe is without question, is believed to be sitting on the case. The Media Institute of Southern Africa, an NGO dedicated to the promotion of free, independent, and pluralistic media, is now running a &Justice delayed is justice denied8 campaign through advertisements in the local papers. ¶4. If passed, the amendments would expand the list of mass media products under the government's control to include electronically transmitted materials and periodically printed publications; tighten the restrictions on foreign media operations and limit accreditation of foreign journalists to a 30-day period; and remove the provision for journalists and media houses to nominate members to the Mass Media Commission (MMC). --Expanding the List of Monitored Products: The bill proposes to extend the provisions of AIPPA to a wider segment of society by inserting a number of new definitions. The amendment expands the list of definitions that apply to the whole Act by moving some that were originally applicable to the regulation of mass media services. As written, the bill could cover the publication of and contributors to church magazines, bank newsletters, and web pages. The bill could also conceivably regulate private advertisements, e-mails, and web pages. --Restricting Journalistic Access: The amendment limits the time in which foreign journalists may be accredited to thirty days. AIPPA states only that accreditation will be for a limited time. The amendment also permits a foreign mass media service to set up an office for twelve months. --Removing the Journalist Nominations to MMC: The amendment would get rid of the requirement that the association of journalists and media houses nominate at least three of the five to nine members on the commission. Prior to passing AIPPA in March 2002, ZANU-PF MP and Chairman of the PLC Eddison Zvobgo fought to include the provision that journalists nominate at least three members. ¶5. The committee responsible for reviewing the AIPPA amendments, the Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communication, completed a report in mid-February in which they expressed concern that the general implications of the amendments go against the ideas of encouraging media businesses to operate. The Committee pointed out that accreditation denies publishers the certainty of knowing the journalists they employ will be able to work. The Minister of Information is given the power to determine for how long a journalist will be in employment. The Committee also reported that: -Accreditation forces journalists to live in fear of being arrested, -The amendment stifles the smooth flow of business with its two-year licenses for media houses, -The $Z500,000 registration fee is excessive, -The Media Commission should be representative of and accountable to the profession, and -The Commission should be independent of the politics of the day, lest it use its power to censor journalists. (NOTE: The Committee comprises five MDC parliamentarians (MP),five ZANU-PF MPs, and a chief from Binga in Matabeleland North, an overwhelmingly MDC stronghold. An MDC MP is chairperson. END NOTE.) -------------- ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL -------------- ¶6. The Electoral Amendment Bill incorporates many of the clauses that were in the General Laws Amendment Act, passed in January 2002, but subsequently declared invalid by the Supreme Court just before the 2002 Presidential elections. The Bill received an adverse report from the PLC, but it remains to be seen how the ruling party will handle it. (NOTE: In January 2002, the PLC issued an adverse report on AIPPA, which resulted in Zvobgo butting heads with Jonathan Moyo, the Minister responsible for AIPPA, and Patrick Chinamasa, Minister of Justice. After several weeks of Zvobgo refusing to table the report in the House, the PLC and Chinamasa conferred for two weeks to resolve some of the issues Zvobgo and the PLC had with the Bill. In the end, the PLC tabled the bill and Parliament passed AIPPA. END NOTE.) ¶7. The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs held a public hearing on March 13, in which all the high level MPs on the committee and representatives from Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC),the National Constitutional Assembly, the Registrar-General (RG),and the MDC election directorate were present. The Committee comprises five MDC MPs, four ZANU-PF MPs, one ZANU-Ndonga MP, and two chiefs. A ZANU-PF MP chairs the committee. According to a March preliminary report on submission on the Bill, none of the stakeholders was satisfied with the Bill as it is currently written. ¶8. Some of the proposed Electoral Act changes include: -Giving the ESC exclusive power to appoint and accredit election monitors whom the Registrar-General must verify. The amendment stipulates that monitors be drawn from the public service cohort. In the past, the ESC drew monitors from civic society organizations and did not need to furnish the RG with proof of their appointment. -Vesting the power to invite election observers in two ministers, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for foreigners and the Minister of Justice for Zimbabweans. In the past, the ESC accredited local observers and the Election Directorate accredited foreign observers. The Ministry of Information decided which foreign journalists would be allowed to report on elections. (COMMENT: This particular minister would certainly use this clause to go against media houses and individual journalists from the foreign media. END COMMENT.) -Making the ESC solely responsible for voter education. However, political parties may still provide their own voter education programs. The amendment makes it a criminal offense, with a penalty of $Z10,000 and/or six months imprisonment, to provide voter education without ESC registration or to receive foreign funds for said voter education. Previously, there were no restrictions on civic organizations conducting voter education and they were to receive local and foreign funding. This clause is meant to limit the content of voter education and the process itself. -Restricting postal voting to members and their spouses away on duty with the disciplined forces or government service and officials and spouses away on election duty. In the past, persons unable to go to polling stations because of ill health or infirmity; residing more than 20 kilometers from the nearest polling stations; and those who had good reason to believe they would not be in their constituency on polling day were allowed to vote by mail. Zimbabweans studying or temporarily working outside the country could apply to vote by mail. -Allowing electoral officers to seal and open ballot boxes and count votes even if all the monitors, observers, election and polling agents who are entitled to be present are not. (COMMENT: In the 2002 presidential elections, polling agents and civil society observers were barred from observing counting in some areas. The GOZ now seeks to legitimize this practice. END COMMENT.) -Making it a criminal offense to place a bill, placard, poster, pamphlet, etc. on any house, building, wall, fence, lamppost, gate, or elevator without the consent of the owner. The penalty is a fine of up to $Z100,000 and/or imprisonment for up to five years. -------------- OTHER BILLS -------------- ¶9. On February 14, the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill was gazetted. The bill exempts persons of Southern African Development Community parentage, who may be citizens of these countries by descent, from compliance with the dual citizenship prohibition and the requirement to renounce the foreign citizenship in order to keep Zimbabwean citizenship. The bill also stipulates that the SADC parent immigrated into or the Zimbabwean parent emigrated out of Zimbabwe to work as a general laborer, farm laborer, mineworker, or domestic employee in order for the exemption to apply. COMMENT: The Citizenship Amendment Bill appears to be a way for ZANU-PF to try and regain the support of Zimbabweans of SADC heritage. In its carefully worded text, the Bill deliberately excludes white Zimbabweans from claiming citizenship without first denouncing a GOZ-perceived allegiance to the country of ancestry. END COMMENT. ¶10. On March 14, the Minister of Justice, Chinamasa, gazetted the disbursement of money to the MDC and ZANU-PF under the Political Parties (Finance) Act. The allocation covers the year June 26, 2002 to June 25, 2003 and is based upon the number of votes cast for the party's candidates in the preceding general election (June 2000) or in by-elections. ZANU-PF was allocated Z$127.5 million (51 percent of total votes cast) and MDC allocated Z$122.5 million (49 percent of total votes cast). -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶11. If the amendments to AIPPA pass, they would make the draconian laws on journalistic freedom even more repressive. The independent media continues to be a problem for the GOZ, and this would provide the GOZ a way to further limit the independent media's influence. As drafted, the amendment is vague and open to broad interpretation. It also seeks to frustrate the independent media and limit its ability to appeal freely. ¶12. If passed, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill would block any move towards a freer electoral environment. If the GOZ is allowed to decide whom to invite as observers, there is the likelihood that the system will be politically manipulated, since the Ministers could only invite foreign journalists and observers who are perceived to be sympathetic to the government of the day and who will turn a blind eye to any election irregularities. The clause about putting up campaign posters makes it almost impossible for electioneering materials to be posted prior to an election. It is unreasonable and impractical to demand that the permission of the municipality or the property owner outside whose property the material is to be posted be given for every posting. Given the propensity for selective application of the law by the GOZ, ZANU-PF candidates will no doubt be allowed to put up posters, while MDC and other opposition posters will be met with the full might of the law. END COMMENT. SULLIVAN