MISA

Situation and Challenges
Southern African journalists and media institutions still frequently face legal challenges; especially criminal defamation and libel that violate internationally accepted standards on the rights and freedom of the media.

The majority of cases concern criminal defamation, which is quite prevalent in the region, with most cases being in Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A common feature of these cases in the criminalisation of ‘insult' to the president or head of state or national symbol which are ‘protected' by national law.

A good example of criminalisation of media is that currently obtaining in Zimbabwe since independence, but recently reinforced by the promulgation of AIPPA and POSA in 2002. It is a criminal offence to publish “false” information prejudicial to the state, or false information adversely affecting the economic interests of Zimbabwe or which undermines public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the prison services or the defense forces of the country. Over 80 journalists have been arrested and 3 newspapers have been closed down using AIPPA and POSA.

MISA-Zimbabwe formed the Media Defense Fund (MDF) in 2002. The MDF, which is run by a separate board chosen by MISA-Zimbabwe, is meant to assists journalist in distress especially as a result of arrests and any litigation that has a bearing on media and freedom of expression rights. The MDF has so far assisted 60 journalists and media workers. Through the MDF, IJAZ was able to mount a Constitutional challenge on AIPPA. The MDF is also playing a key role in the case of the closed The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday and The Tribune, the 3 newspapers closed down using AIPPA.

In Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia, the legal threat to media is largely due to disproportionately high awards given to civil defamation litigants against publishers.

In Swaziland, the Proscribed Publications Act of 1968 was used to shutdown the Guardian Newspaper and the Nation magazine in 2001, though the latter was able to come back after a few months, while the former has failed to come back despite winning their High Court case in 2002. The country does not have a protection of journalistic sources provision in its laws.

In 1995, MISA co-organized an East and Southern Africa conference on media law with Article 19. This later led to establishment of a Media Lawyers Network which was later convened in 1999 and 2001.

The network has since been inactive, though MISA intends to continue to support lawyers to enable them to defend media practitioners. To this end, MISA will seek to resuscitate the Media Lawyers Network in an effort at alliance building in defense of broader issues of freedom of expression and media freedom. Read more