LOOKING FORWARD TO A FREE PRESS IN ZIMBABWE

On this day in 2005 ZimOnline carried a sad story about four journalists who had been sacked ironically on World Press Day. Below is the story as we reflect on the media situation in Zimbabwe amid hopes of the liberalisation of the airwaves and the end to attacks on the private press and its journalists. In the formation of a coalition government arch rivals Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to the freedom of the press and as media practitioners we look forward to a free Zimbabwean press.

Media organisations have been shut down while journalists have been arrested on trumped up charges of undermining state security while those that are fortunate to be employed earn pathetic salaries and when they raise their voices they are fired. For an unemployed journo there is no hope in Zimbabwe because the media space remains closed because of laws like Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), Public Order and security Act (POSA) which curtail media development.

FOUR JOURNALISTS FIRED ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
Wed 4 May 2005
BULAWAYO - Four journalists were yesterday dismissed from their jobs in Zimbabwe's second biggest city Bulawayo in a row over non-payment of salaries.

The four, who worked for the Bulawayo-based sports magazine Half-Time, are editor of the magazine Laddington Sadambura, deputy editor Takunda Ndaabare, and two reporters Simbarashe Nembaware and Tsungirirai Tsikira.

They were dismissed - ironically as Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in marking World Press Freedom Day yesterday - after downing their pens last Friday in a desperate bid to pressure management to pay salaries which they had not been paid for the last three months.

The journalists were instead summarily dismissed without a hearing in a development that vividly illustrates how Zimbabwean journalists have lost rights because of President Robert Mugabe's repressive media laws and have also lost out on the shop floor after the government's closure of several newspapers including the country's biggest paper, the Daily News.

With so many highly qualified but jobless journalists on the streets, employers can literally hire and fire their editorial staff willy-nilly. One of the dismissed journalists, Nembaware said: "It's very sad that employers can take advantage of their positions and abuse journalists like this. It is a clarion call for all journalists to unite and fight for their rights," said Nembaware.

A senior official at the magazine, Paul Dube, confirmed the dismissal saying some were fired for incompetence. "Some were fired, yes, but two of them resigned because they said they could not bear it going for more months or days without pay," said Dube.

Zimbabwe is rated among the worst countries for journalists together with Iran and the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.

More than one hundred journalists have been arrested in the last three years as the government cracked down on dissenting voices in the private press. Several senior journalists at state-controlled media organisations have also been purged for allegedly not toeing the government line. -
ZimOnline