The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) together with the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Article 19 and Media Lawyers Network are holding their fourth media law conference from November 29 to December 1, 2001 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The conferences is expected to bring together media lawyers from all countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region to discuss “access to information” held by the state and multinational and transnational corporations.

The Harare conference comes as journalists around the world find it increasingly difficult to access information held by the government of Zimbabwe. It also flies in the face of the new SADC protocol on culture, information and sports that proposes accreditation for journalists who want to practice in the region.

Media activists and journalists have slammed the protocol saying it will hamper the free flow of information since government may use the protocol to exclude particular journalists and media houses.

The first joint media law conference under the sponsorship of Interfund was held in 1997 in Zanzibar, the 1998 conference was held in Johannesburg and the 1999 conference was in Windhoek and this year Harare has been chosen as a symbolic venue for the conference.

The international community has criticized the Zimbabwean government heavily for its abuse on media freedom and access to information. Several Zimbabwean journalists have suffered physical attacks, detention and other forms of intimidation at the hands of the Zimbabwean police. The government backed war veterans has also been terrorizing the media in Zimbabwe.

This year’s conference theme was also carefully chosen to address the problems of access to information that the region is facing. Apart from South African no other country in the region has a law on access to information. Lesotho is starting to draft a law on access to information.

The lack of channels to access information has seriously undermined democratic processes in the region. While activities of institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF for example have left a large scar on the lives of the African people through the structural adjustment programmes, there have not been enough uncensored information flowing to the people.

For more information contact: Scotch Tagwireyi Information and Communications Officer, Freedom of Expression Institute, Phone, 27 11 403 8403 Cell 27 723572699, Fax 27 11 403 8309.