Madanhire and Matshazi, journalists with The Standard newspaper approached the Constitutional Court seeking that Section 96 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform, on criminal defamation be ...
Resource centre: Media laws, cases and analyses
The legal environment and free expression
Laws can help citizens exercise their right to free expression – for example, access to information laws or national constitutions guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression and freedom of information.
Laws can also be used to restrict free expression and media freedom. For example, governments and private citizens may use defamation and libel laws to prosecute media workers and citizens for speaking against injustices. And, governments and public institutions may use privacy and security laws to restrict access to public information.
Database of legislation and case law affecting free expression in Africa
Legislation refers to laws (called Acts or Statutes) enacted by parliament, while case law is law based on the reported decisions of judges in cases that come before them. In their decisions, judges give the relevant facts of the case and the legal reasoning they applied to reach their decision.
The applicants, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto, journalists at independent newspaper The Standard challenged the constitutionality of the false news provision found in Section 50 of the Law and Order ...
A newspaper had published a story exposing a corruption scandal in which a number of Ministers of Government and other senior officials were implicated. The plaintiff, a Government Minister, was ...
The Supreme Court had, in August 1995, ruled that the monopoly, granted to the Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) by Section 26(1) of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act ...
Capital Radio Private Limited applied for a declaration of the unconstitutionality of the monopoly on broadcasting given to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). Capital radio sought to be ...
Retrofit Private Limited approached the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Postal and Telecommunication Corporation's exclusive monopoly on the licensing of public ...
TS Masiyiwa Holdings sought relief from the Supreme Court in its quest to establish a cellular telephone service in the face of the monopoly given to the Posts and Telecommunications Corporation ...