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Media, elections and governance

Shadow Report of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Information, Media and Broadcasting Services public hearings on the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill H.B 9, 2024

Media freedom advocacy group, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Zimbabwe) and its partners in a network of journalistic professional associations and media support organisations, the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) participated in all seven (7) public hearings conducted throughout the country to shadow this public process and compile this report to enhance further policy discussions and parliamentary debates on the law.  

Zimbabwe should stay the course in reducing media freedom violations

Zimbabwe moved 10 places from 126 in 2023 to 116 in 2024 in Reporters Without Borders’s World Press Freedom Index rankings. This came on the backdrop of reductions in media freedom violations last year, culminating in an improved media operating environment during Zimbabwe’s 2023 election season.

MISA Zimbabwe 2022 State of the Media Report (Now Available)

While Zimbabwe is commendably not among the African countries with jailed journalists, the country witnessed an upsurge in the number of cases involving the assaults of journalists at political gatherings/rallies, with some sustaining injuries for which they sought medical treatment.

New MISA Zimbabwe Legal & ICT Policy Lead

MISA Zimbabwe welcomes Ms Sithole to the organisation to lead one of our organisational strategic pillars in these complex moments in our socio-economic and political environment in Zimbabwe and the region at large.

Worrying increase in cases of impunity for crimes against journalists

We therefore reiterate our earlier calls for the Government, through key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Zimbabwe Media Commission, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Zimbabwe Republic Police, to come up with concrete mechanisms to curb these worrying media freedom violations.