Censorship as a Tool for Political Control

1 October 2007

CENSORSHIP AS A TOOL FOR POLITICAL CONTROL

There is more than one side to any story. This is truer with censorship of the written word than with most topics. It should be admitted that censorship exists, to some extent, in all modern countries. However, it is worse in some countries than in others. Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons - individuals, groups or government officials - find objectionable or dangerous.

Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries and the media, to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.

A government which censors the information available to its people, other than in a state of national emergency, is a government which seeks to keep the people in a state of ignorance. When censorship is overused, it is often associated with human rights abuse, dictatorship and repression. The term "censorship" is often used as a pejorative term to signify a belief that a group controlling certain information is using this control improperly or for its own benefit, or preventing others from accessing information that should be made readily accessible (often so that conclusions drawn can be verified).

During the Rhodesian era, the Censorship and Entertainment Control, the Official Secrecy and the Privileges and Immunities Acts were oppressive colonial laws which worked against freedom of expression and which the ZANU (PF) government retained after independence in 1980.

After the establishment of the British South Africa Company administration in Mashonaland in 1890, the various European governments of Rhodesia were sensitive to criticism. It is said that Cecil John Rhodes threatened W. E. Fairbridge with deportation shortly after the latter had started the forerunner of the Rhodesia Herald in 1891. Fairbridge then toned down his editorial criticisms of the administration.

Until the Rhodesian Front came to power in 1962, the European press tended to identify closely with the interests of the government, so overt censorship was rarely a problem. By contrast, the majority African population, whose interests have almost always conflicted with those of the government, have never established anything like an independent press. Papers such as the African Daily News, Chapungu, the Zimbabwe Sun, and others were quickly suppressed when they expressed overtly African nationalist sentiments.

In Zimbabwe, of particular concern to the media has been the role of the Media and Information Commission in closing newspapers, like the Daily News, and thereby restricting the right of the public to know how their country is governed. The constant abuse of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) does nothing to secure public access to information.

Aippa was so ill prepared and its objectives so nakedly anti-democratic, even members of the ruling party found it a repulsive invasion of every tenant of democratic principles. Journalists can be sentenced for up to two years in prison for practicing journalism without a license. Since the promulgation of Aippa, four privately-run newspapers have been banned for being outspoken on matters of corruption in government circles. In addition, over a hundred journalists have been arrested. The authorities accuse the independent and foreign-based media of pushing a "regime change" agenda in the country.

American journalist, Andrew Meldrum, was the first to be prosecuted for allegedly publishing false information in Britain's Guardian newspaper. He was acquitted by a Harare magistrate but the government expelled him from the country in May 2003. Andrew Meldrum was the fourth journalist to be deported over the past two years to 2004. Only a handful of foreign reporters have been granted visas to enter Zimbabwe.

To aggravate matters, fifteen journalists were reported to have been named on a recently leaked state hit-list. With crucial presidential and parliamentary elections expected in March 2008, the ZANU (PF) government was likely to tighten the noose on the private media and Zimbabwean correspondents for foreign media, who could blow the whistle on any attempts by the ruling party to rig the elections.

The leaked document mentions names of editors and political reporters from the private media, foreign-based Zimbabwean publications and newspapers seen as being hostile to the government. One of the journalists on the list is Gift Phiri who was abducted by the police and tortured on allegations of operating without a licence as required under Zimbabwe's tough media laws. He was, however, acquitted by the courts. The targeted scribes are investigative journalists who work or have worked for the private media.

And yet another journalist, Abel Mutsakani, was short and wounded in July 2007 by a gang of three assailants in Johannesburg. Even more frightening was that another journalist, Edward Chikomba, was murdered on March 31 2007 after being abducted by suspected members of the feared spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). He was alleged to have taken the video footage of the brutalised MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in a police station on the 11th of March.

Restrictive legislations such as the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) hamper freedom of expression. The prevailing regulatory environment as dictated by the BSA and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's governance, ownership and management structure chokes its editorial independence, allowing the Ministry of Information and Publicity free reign over the appointment of its board of directors, chief executive officer and editorial decisions.

The chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH), Henry Muradzikwa, admitted that political interference and censorship of news reports is the order of the day at the state-controlled national broadcaster. Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications, Muradzikwa said interference with ZBH's editorial policy and government's expectations of the state broadcaster undermined media freedom.

The Interception of Communications Act, ratified on August 3 this year, will allow authorities to intercept all phone, Internet, and mail communications, and will establish a State monitoring centre and require telecommunications providers to install systems "supporting lawful interceptions at all times", according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa. The Act forms part of the tools that the government uses to crash the rights and freedoms of Zimbabweans.

Independent journalists say the law is intended to close a loophole in an already oppressive reporting environment. As Zimbabwe has become more restrictive of the media, a greater number of Zimbabwean journalists send their reports to international media outlets and online publications based outside the country. ‘The lawful interception of communications could expose investigative reporters and create a climate of fear,' said the President of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, Matthew Takaona.

The government will pry into citizens' private lives through accessing the e-mail, telephone calls, postal services and any other forms of communication. Messages obtained through such interceptions will be interpreted by the state to mean anything. This is against the provisions of the African Charter for Human and People's Rights article 9 which maintains that everyone has the right to receive information and may express it in any way they like about any subject they choose.

The Act is also in violation of a Supreme Court judgment of 2004 that states that sections 98 and 103 of the Posts and Telecommunications (PTC) Act were violating section 20 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. The section clearly outlines that any individual has the right to freedom of expression, freedom to receive and impart ideas and freedom from interference with one's correspondence.

Among those granted powers to intercept and monitor information are the Chief of the Defence Intelligence, the Director-General of National Security, the Commissioner of Police as well as the Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

The new law joins a raft of other draconian pieces of legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that the government has used to suppress dissension.

The jamming of independent radio stations was used by the Smith regime during the 1970s, at the height of Chimurenga. Now the independence government has resorted to the same methods. In June 2006, SW Radio Africa (a UK-based independent broadcaster) reported that its medium-wave broadcasts into Zimbabwe had been jammed. There had been a similar scrambling of its short-wave broadcasts in 2005. Although the ZANU (PF) government denied that it had interfered, in February 2007 it admitted to jamming Washington-based Studio 7, produced by Voice of America and staffed by uprooted Zimbabwean journalists.

Censorship in Zimbabwe has also been used in the field of performing arts. The state-run broadcasting station removed an Ndebele television drama called Stitsha after showing seven of the 10 episodes, which it had commissioned in 1997. The first Ndebele drama to be removed was Sinjalo. Sinjalo, Ndebele for "we are like that" was removed following political interference by the ruling party's heavyweights, who felt that Amakhosi Productions' drama was too political. Activities of the notorious Fifth Brigade troops, accused by human rights organisations for atrocities in Matabeleland and the Midlands were highlighted in Sinjalo.

In 2004, Daves Guzha's satirical play, Super Patriots and Morons, was banned. Produced by Rooftop Promotions, the play is set in a country suffering from severe food shortages, fuel and food queues coupled with a repressive government infamous for using the state security to silence dissenting voices.

Cont Mhlanga's political satire, The Good President, was also banished by police in Bulawayo in mid-June 2007. Police stormed Bulawayo Theatre and ordered the play to stop saying it was a political gathering that contravened the Public Order and Security Act.

When corruption in the corridors of power finally came out in the open in 1988, the father of Chimurenga music, Thomas Mapfumo, composed a piece of music, which became a hit in the country. Corruption is made up of lyrics that went to the heart of events of the day - how one cannot expect to go into business without bribery, typified by the tender system scams. Combining a highly danceable melody with a political message, Mapfumo is quick to remind those involved in these and other corrupt activities that "you cannot run away from justice". This did not go well with the "chefs" in Harare who immediately banned the music from the air-waives and confined the disc to the music archives.

Although other albums were routinely banned from the airwaves, it did not deter Mapfumo. The album Chimurenga Explosion, released in December 1999 contains scathing songs - Mamvemve, Nhamo Yauya, Chisi and Disaster, which are all critical of the government's policies blamed for the suffering which has reduced the majority of the people to paupers. Mamvemve portrays the country as having been reduced to rags.

Another album, Chimurenga Rebel, released towards Christmas in 2001, is heavily laden with potent lyrics that attack bad governance, abuse of human rights, misguided policies and brings to the fore the wailing voices of victims of political violence in Zimbabwe. It had eight of its songs banned.

The same can be said of Oliver Mtukudzi. His cassettes and compact discs (CDs) were confiscated in 2001 by the police and members of the CIO because of the "offensive" songs on the album Bvuma/Tolerance. At one time, engineer Steven Schadendorff was arrested by detectives from the Law and Order Section for repeatedly beaming the spotlight on Mugabe's portrait at the Harare International Conference Centre as ‘Tuku' sang Wasakara (You're Finished).

Censors might sincerely believe that certain materials are so offensive or present ideas that are so hateful and destructive to society, that they simply must not see the light of day. Others are worried that younger or weaker people will be badly influenced by bad ideas, and will do bad things as a result. Still others believe that there is a very clear distinction between ideas that are right and morally uplifting, and ideas that are wrong and morally corrupting, and wish to ensure that society has the benefit of their perception. They believe that certain individuals, certain institutions, even society itself, will be endangered if particular ideas are disseminated without restriction.

It is pertinent to mention, though, that international principles of journalism require media institutions to give equal opportunity and tolerance to contesting views. What censors often do not consider is that, if they succeed in suppressing the ideas they do not like today, others may use that precedent to suppress the ideas they do like tomorrow. As the Americans say, "What goes around comes around."