Contestation of Ideas: Media Activism and Media Democracy in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The struggle for media reform by media reform activists in Zimbabwe has revolutionised the media sphere from various perspectives. Regardless of these changes, the media in Zimbabwe has remained undemocratic. This article explores the extent to which media reforms adopted in the post-2000 era have democratised the media. It further examines the contestation of ideas that characterised the media reform processes in Zimbabwe. Guided by the democracy theory, the article questions the extent to which media reforms in Zimbabwe have democratised the media space. Analysis of documents and in-depth interviews with media policy actors in Zimbabwe constitute the methodology of this study. The article argues that media reforms have changed the dynamics of media policy and practice in Zimbabwe. However, despite these changes, the media has remained undemocratic due to the hegemonic control of the media by the state.

KEYWORDS:

• Media reform
• media
• policy
• activism
• reform
• democracy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ubuntu is a traditional African philosophy, defined as communicating, caring and sharing with humans in harmony with all of creation.

2 Solomon Mujuru (5 May 1945–15 August 2011), also known by his nom-de-guerre, Rex Nhongo, was a Zimbabwean army general and politician.

3 Grace Marufu was later married to President Mugabe and became Mrs Grace Mugabe.

4 An initiative done by The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) to assess media democracy.

5 ZMC at first was created through section 68 (1) of the AIPPA (which became law in January 2008) and was later reaffirmed through Constitutional Amendment Number 19 of February 2009, which elevated it to a Constitutional Commission.

6 Zimpapers is a government-owned newspaper publishing company which now owns two radio broadcasting stations. It has always been accused by the people of government bias reporting.

7 Formerly known as the British Empire Parliamentary Association (EPA) based on the First World War British idea of “directing the thought of most of the World”.