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afrol News, 9 April - Civic groups said the Broadcasting Services Act 2001, gives Zimbabwean Information and Publicity Minister, Jonathan Moyo excessive powers, according to press reports. The media watchdog Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) is alerted by the worsening situation in Zimbabwe. According to reports by the independent Zimbabwean newspaper Daily News, the civic groups said the new Act currently awaiting President Mugabe's signature would enable the Minister to control any new private radio and television stations and community radio stations which he may wish to approve. Anthony Brooks, a Harare lawyer representing Capital Radio, an aspiring Radio station, said that a constitutional challenge of the Act is now in progress and there are numerous parts of that legislation that they are challenging. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the Public Service Association, Zimbabwe Teachers Association, the National Constitutional Assembly, a human rights NGO, Amani Trust, the Community Working Group on Health, the Zimbabwe National Students Union and the Media Monitoring project all described the new Act as "draconian". - The Act is a recipe for continued state-control of radio and television, leading to the silencing, not the liberation or amplifying, of the many unheard voices in our society, said the Civics Groups in a joint statement. The organisations said the Minister would decide who gets the licence, which he could change at will. The Minister could also close down any radio or television station. The civic groups said that the Act failed to respect and protect the rights to information and communication as enshrined in the constitution of Zimbabwe and the Southern African and International Conventions of which Zimbabwe is a signatory. - We call on the government to implement a legitimate process of national debate and consultation, leading to the development of democratic media laws whose main objective is the nurturing of a more democratic Zimbabwe, reads the statement. Background Moyo said that there is no committee that is superior to the House adding that committee makes reports to the full Parliament which has the mandate to decide. Moyo also said that he would stick by the report made by the Attorney General, which dismissed the adverse report. The Broadcasting Services Act 2001 will affect the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation ZBC), as well, particularly on the clause regarding the local programme content. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Members of Parliament proposed amendments to some sections of the Bill without success, as Moyo dismissed their suggestions as being without merit. The Bill was passed into an Act after 12 hours of intense debate on 3 April 2001. On 22 September a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court nullified the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's broadcasting monopoly. The judgement made null and void the Broadcasting Act under which ZBC was pronounced as the sole broadcaster in Zimbabwe. The legislative vacuum was filled by the 4 October New Broadcasting Regulations which came under the Presidential Powers Act. The challenge to the ZBC monopoly was made by Capital Radio, a prospective radio broadcasting in Zimbabwe.
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