US embassy cable - 02HARARE2243

UNCLAS HARARE 002243 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PD, AF/S, AF/RA 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI, Media and Communications 
SUBJECT: INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS CHALLENGE MEDIA 
CONTROL LAW 
 
 
  1.   Journalists working for the privately owned media 
      in Zimbabwe have filed an urgent application with the 
      Supreme Court of Zimbabwe to challenge certain 
      sections of the controversial Access to Information 
      and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).  Lawyers 
      representing the Independent Journalists Association 
      of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) describe the Act as a "sudden leap 
      into autocracy."  The legal challenge focuses on those 
      sections of the Act that require journalists to 
      register with the government, and that prescribe 
      penalties (up to two years in prison) for "abuse of 
      journalistic privilege" and "publishing falsehoods." 
 
  2.   Under AIPPA, all journalists and privately owned 
      media organizations are required to register with the 
      government by October 31, 2002.  State-owned media 
      organizations are exempted from this requirement. 
      Consensus among the independent media is that the 
      organizations will register, but individual 
      journalists will not.  This opens the possibility that 
      journalists working for the privately owned media 
      could be arrested on November 1.  The legal challenge 
      brought by IJAZ is partially intended to relieve that 
      threat. 
 
SULLIVAN