IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT UPDATE - ZIMBABWE

15 October 2003

Amended AIPPA legislation passed into law

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

**Updates IFEX alerts of 9 and 8 May, 25 and 6 March, 28 February, 31 and 27
January 2003 and others**

(MISA/IFEX) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has signed into law the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act (AIPPA Amendment), which
seeks to correct certain anomalies that came to light after the law was
promulgated in 2002.

On 13 October 2003, "The Herald" newspaper reported that in an extraordinary
government gazette, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda
said the president had signed the act into law.

The new act redefines Section 2 of the principal act. The term "mass media
service" or "mass media", which hitherto had been unclear, has been defined as
"any service, media or medium consisting in the transmission of voice, visual,
data or textual messages to an unlimited number of people and includes an
advertising agency, publisher or, except otherwise excluded or specially
provided for in this Act, a news agency or broadcasting licensee as defined in
the Broadcasting Services Act".

"Mass media products" are now defined as "an advertisement, the total print or
part of the total print of a separate issue of a periodically printed
publication, a separate issue of a tele text programme, the total or part of the
data of any electronically transmitted material or audio or video recorded
programme".

"Mass media" now means "any service that produces mass media products whether or
not it disseminates them".

The amendments also include the insertion of a new section on the abuse of
journalistic privilege. In May, the Supreme Court struck down Section 80 of the
act, which had made it an offence for a journalist to "publish falsehoods". The
court deemed the section to be unconstitutional.

The new amendment states that "a journalist who abuses his or her journalistic
privilege by publishing information that he or she intentionally or recklessly
falsifies in a manner which threatens the interests of defense, public safety,
public order, the economic interests of the state, public morality or health or
is injurious to the reputation, rights and freedoms of other people, shall be
guilty of an offence and liable to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two
years".

Section 22 has been amended and now states that "the head of a public
institution may refuse to disclose to an applicant information concerning the
applicant if such disclosure will result in a threat to the applicant's or
another person's safety or physical health".

The new act exempts the following from registration: "a mass media service
founded by or under an Act of Parliament, a mass media service consisting of the
activities of a person holding a license issued in terms of the Broadcasting
Services Act, a representative office of a foreign mass media service permitted
to work in Zimbabwe and the production of publications by any enterprise,
institution and other person that are disseminated to exclusively to members or
employees of that enterprise, association, institution or other person".

For further information, contact Zoe Titus or Kaitira Kandjii, Regional
Information Coordinator, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street,
Mailing Address; Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232 975, fax:
+264 61 248 016, e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected], Internet:
http://www.misa.org/

The information contained in this alert update is the sole responsibility of
MISA. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit MISA.
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