Media Work
Zimbabwe - Election Focus 2008
Focus on Zimbabwe is a special Mail & Guardian Online suite of reports, with an emphasis on Zimbabwe's 29th March 2008 elections. The selection of articles highlighted here were guest-edited by IBA Programme Lawyer, Gugulethu Moyo, and Mark Ashurst of the Africa Research Institute. Read more about the IBA's coverage of Zimbabwe's 2008 elections here.
Arrests and Intimidation - March 2007
Following the recent spate of violence in Zimbabwe, sparked by the arrest of Morgan Tsvangirai and other members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on 11 March 2007, the IBA has embarked on a media campaign to raise the profile of the ongoing crisis in the country. Gugulethu Moyo, who leads the IBA's campaign on Zimbabwe, has been sought out for comment by international broadcasters, including the BBC and Al Jazeera, and has conducted a number of television and radio interviews on the issues affecting the country. To read the press statements and intervention letters issued by the IBA in response to recent events, see the latest developments section below.
Criticism of the Law Society
In August 2006, the IBA issued a press statement expressing grave concern at recent criticism of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) in the Sunday Mail. In the article Mr Mahoso, Chairman of the government-appointed Media and Information Commission, asserted that the LSZ was little more than a puppet of Western organisations with an agenda to return Zimbabwe to the days of colonial rule. Mr Mahoso infered that the LSZ will be subject to Government action if it continues to work in opposition to the policies of the current administration. Click here to read the statement.
General Elections 2005
With Zimbabwe’s general elections held on Friday 2 March 2005, the HRI placed a supplement in two national newspapers in order to raise public awareness. The supplement appeared in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian and Zimbabwe’s Independent just one week before the countries general elections. The article highlighted how SADC protocol has been floundered and discussed whether the upcoming elections could be free and fair.
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