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President Bakili Muluzi, whose ruling party supporters beat up Nation reporters on duty on Monday, will face a petition by international press groups condemning
violent acts on the media when he arrives in Mozambican capital Maputo on Wednesday for the second summit of the African Union (AU).
A petition to be presented to outgoing chair of the AU President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and summit host President Joaquim Chissano, sourced in Maputo, said most African leaders continue to disregard with impunity rights of the press and society.
Signed by 130 media personnel and organisations from all over the world, the petition called on the immediate releases of all journalists in detention, a repeal of all anti-media laws and slammed regimes that deny people the right to participate in democratic debate towards the solving of many problems facing the continent.
“We are writing to express our concern over the continued incarceration of and harassment of journalists in the majority of African countries for no other reason than carrying out their legitimate duties,” the petition said.
The group said there are so many challenges facing the continent, which includes improving education, health care, HIV/Aids scourge, agriculture and resolving
conflicts among others.
“These challenges cannot be met without the active participation of the citizens of the African countries,” the communiqué said.
The journalists said participation in shaping up policy and decision making in the countries cannot be possible if governments continue to deny the media and civil society the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, political participation as well as media freedom to facilitate a free exchange of information, ideas and opinion.
The media said these rights continue to be abused by many governments despite the fact that all African countries signed the AU constitutive Act, the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and others.
Said the media: “It saddens us greatly therefore to note that more media houses have been shut down and more journalists have been imprisoned, killed and driven into exile in the last forty years of independent Africa.
The media said most governments have retained pre-independence anti-media and anti-freedom laws, with others actually going a step further to perfect such repressive acts.
Timothy Balding, director general of World Association of Newspapers (WAN), said the right for journalists to practice without fear of legal prosecution or bodily injury is fundamental to any functioning democracy.
Luckson Chipare, regional director of Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), said the AU needs to check all forms of abuse and attacks towards the media.
Rotimi Sankore from Freedom of Expression of Associated Rights said the AU “must respond to this petition if it is to have any credibility amongst Africans.”
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