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.
Shamuyarira vs. Zimbabwe Newspapers
(332.15 kB)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 ...
Retrofit Private Limited vs. the Postal and Telecommunications Corporation & Another 1995 (2) ZLR 199 (S)
(168.81 kB)Retrofit Private Limited approached the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Postal and Telecommunication Corporation's exclusive monopoly on the licensing of public ...
Chavhunduka and Choto vs Ministry of Home Affairs SC36/2000
(154.28 kB)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 ...
T S Masiyiwa Holdings and Another vs. Minister of Information 1996 (2) ZLR 754 (S)
(129.53 kB)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 ...
Index Zimbabwe 2010
(137.15 kB)
Index Zimbabwe 2010 - 2015
(7.45 MB)
Banana vs Attorney General
(144.91 kB)Court case better former President of Zimbabwe Canaan Banana and the State. The applicant applied for a permanent stay of the criminal proceedings against him on the basis that there was there was a ...
MISA Zimbabwe Position on an Independent Broadcasting Telecommunications Regulator
(325.62 kB)MISA Zimbabwe's position on an independent converged Broadcasting and Telecommunications Regulatory authority for the country
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)(2007)
(290.92 kB)This is the Access to Information (ATI) Act of Zimbabwe. An ATI Act should provide the right to access information in accordance with the principles that government information should be available to ...