'Hard knocks' for media in southern Africa
May 03 2007 at 05:59PM
Windhoek - Media in southern Africa suffered "hard knocks" and had to defend press freedom in courts at an increasing rate, a new review of media freedom published by a regional media watchdog said on Thursday.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said in its annual monitoring publication released on World Press Freedom Day that a "steady increase in criminal and civil defamation suits created an environment where self-preservation through self-censorship has become common practice".
"2006 has been a year of hard knocks for the media in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) countries," said Misa researcher Zoe Titus.
"Whilst numerous victories were recorded with respect to legal judgments like in South Africa, these came at great cost to media institutions and individuals," he said.
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"We issued fewer alerts last year for the 11 SADC countries we monitor, but Zimbabwe remains the biggest worry," Titus told AFP at the Misa headquarters in Windhoek.
"What happens there with regard to media freedom and democracy requires a level of solidarity by all journalists in the region," he added.
Media rights groups in Zimbabwe issued a statement on Wednesday, bemoaning continued attacks on journalists by security forces and called on the government to scrap tough media laws.
They said two Zimbabwean journalists had recently been assaulted by the security services, including the chief reporter of The Zimbabwean newspaper who is now facing charges of practising journalism without accreditation.
Misa noted an overall decrease in conventional media freedom violations such as physical attacks, arrests and detentions and outright attempts to censor media workers.
The media watchdog issued 144 alerts about press freedom violations in 11 SADC countries for 2006, a decrease of 7,6 percent from the previous year, when 155 alerts were issued.
The majority of criminal defamation cases in the region were registered in Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. - Sapa-AFP
