Doubts on the ZMC’s capability to unleash a democratic media environment came to the fore during a press club discussion held at the Quill Club in Harare on 22 January 2010 organised by MISA-Zimbabwe Harare Advocacy Committee.  The ZMC is the statutory successor regulatory body to the Media and Information Commission which came into being following amendments to the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

Senior journalists Dumisani Muleya and Loughty Dube as well as ZMC commissioner-designate Christopher Mutsvangwa were drawn in as panelists to tackle the topic: Does the Zimbabwe Media Commission have the capacity to reform the media in Zimbabwe?

 “What is most poisonous about it is that it (ZMC) did not come out of sector-wide consultations. It is clear the ZMC was set up as a tool for politicians to control the media,” said Muleya the assistant editor of the Zimbabwe Independent and spokesperson of the Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights (ZJHR).

Loughty Dube, MISA-Zimbabwe Chairperson, reiterated that the media should self-regulate hence the establishment of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) in compliance with regional and international declarations to which Zimbabwe a state party to. Dube concurred with Muleya saying journalist were not  consulted but that political parties imposed the ZMC through the signing of the Global Political Agreement by the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations hence its questionable capacity  to institute media reforms.

The MISA-Zimbabwe chairperson called for the repealing of AIPPA, Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) as part of the concrete steps that should be taken towards meaningful media reforms in Zimbabwe. Ambassador Mutsvangwa was non-committal on the issue of the repealing of AIPPA and his role as ZMC commissioner-designate saying he would “try and do as honest a job as I can based on my intelligence”.

In his contribution to the debate, Iden Wetherell, Chairperson of the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (Zinef), said the “arrogance which bordered on ignorance” (on media reforms) displayed by the commissioner-designate had dampened his previous position that the ZMC should be given a chance to undertake the envisaged media reforms.  

The debating session was chaired by MISA-Zimbabwe Harare Advocacy Committee chairperson, Kumbirai Mafunda