Freedom for Zimbabwe's media as court scraps criminal defamation law

Zimbabwe's constitutional court has struck down the country's criminal defamation law, enabling journalists to write their stories without fear of being arrested and jailed.

Granting an application by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and four journalists, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on Wednesday ruled that the criminal defamation law had in fact been invalid since its promulgation in 2004.

The offence of criminal defamation condemns any person who intends to harm the reputation of another person, or knowingly publishes a false statement causing serious harm to the reputation of another person to imprisonment of maximum two years or a fine.

Since its promulgation, the law has caused consternation among media houses, with journalists arguing that it was an affront to press freedom and was created to deal with what government considered an errant private media.

Even the editor of the state-controlled Herald newspaper Caesar Zvayi filed a constitutional application in 2015 to have it removed from the statutes.

More than 30 journalists from the private media, including editors ,have been arrested over the years facing charges under the law, although none were convicted.

MISA said it welcomed the ruling which vindicated its numerous calls for the scraping of this law from the statute books.

"It has always been the position of MISA that such laws have no place in a democratic society given that there are alternative civil remedies available to aggrieved parties outside criminal defamation," the organization said.

Journalists welcomed the ruling and took to social media to express their joy.

Aggrieved people may still seek recourse through civil courts, however, meaning that journalists still have to exercise self-restraint lest they are sued and made to pay damages. Endit