Members of Zimbabwe Media Council visiting Denmark in December 2007. Photo: Lotte Dahlmann/IMS

Financial constraints threaten to eradicate independent media in Zimbabwe, warns representatives of new media council during visit to Denmark

In June 2007, the government of Zimbabwe issued a decree according to which, the prices on all commodities were to be reduced by half of the current price as a means to combat the immediate effects of price hike owed to uncontrolled inflation in the country. the decree also included newspapers, which sere forced to reduce the cover price that were already very low.

Fuel prices had been fixed at Z$ 60 000.00 (US$0. 83c), but oil companies rejected to follow the decree arguing they had to follow the international market.

This literally fuelled a detrimental financial crisis for independent newspapers with no access to public coffers, as expenses for news print sky-rocketed whilst income from cover prices plummeted.

A serious blow to independent media

Having been victims of repressive measures in the form of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and security Act (POSA) this was seen a new and very serious measure to clamp down on independent media in Zimbabwe as production costs are constantly changing due to inflation of over 15 000%.

"It is simply no longer viable to run a newspaper in Zimbabwe, says Raphael Khumalo, Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard.

Together with two other representatives, Abigail Gamanya and Bishop Sebastian Bakare of the Media Council of Zimbabwe, Mr Khumalo visited Denmark last week to study self-regulatory bodies for media. The media Council of Zimbabwe is a newly established institution in Zimbabwe with the aim to promote independence and high professional integrity of the media profession in Zimbabwe by, among others ensuring professional self-regulation among print and broadcast media.

In Denmark, the group visited, among others, the Danish Press Council, the Danish Union of Journalists and met with the Reader’s and Listener’s editors of Danish national newspaper Politiken and the Danish Broadcast Company (DR) respectively.

A Fruitful visit

The visitors said they admired the way media in Denmark has evolved over time and been instrumental in installing democracy and serving people from so many different directions.

Asked whether the visit to Denmark had any thing useful to offer media in Zimbabwe, Bishop Sebastian Bakare who is representing the civil society on the Media Council, said:

- The visit to Denmark surpassed my expectations. Denmark has so much relevant information, which is of assistance to our fledgling professional body, especially in terms of understanding how media councils operate under a democracy.

The team of Media Council of Zimbabwe representatives proceeded to Norway and Sweden to visit similar institutions to complete a study tour in Scandinavia.