of the state-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) to the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), assuming the task of statutory media regulation, registration of mass media and accrediting of journalists from the former. Members of the ZMC, which is still to be constituted, will consist of nine members appointed by the president from a list of persons nominated by the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders in terms of the amendments to AIPPA. Statutory regulation is anathema to media diversity and pluralism and is not conducive to the creation of an enabling environment for the entry of new private players into both the print and broadcasting sector. Foreign funding and ownership in the print media remains restricted and can only be considered at the absolute discretion of the responsible minister. A subsidiary body, the Zimbabwe Media Council, will also be put in place to enforce media ethics despite the existence of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe, which came into being in June 2007 in compliance with the Banjul Declaration on the Principles of Freedom of Expression that guarantees self-regulation of the media. Media freedom violations increased in 2008 in the period between March 29 and the June 27 presidential election run-off. The violations were in the form of resurrecting old cases against journalists, which had hitherto been quashed for lack of evidence, and re-arrests of foreign journalists set free by the courts. Government even came up with a blacklist of journalists who were barred from covering the elections. The increase in the cases of media violations should be viewed as having been designed to instil fear among journalists deemed critical of the government, thereby limiting the availability of alternative information during the election campaign period more so when viewed against the ban against foreign news organisations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN), Britain’s Sky News and South African television channel e.tv. Caught in the vortex of the political violence was president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), Matthew Takaona, who together with his brother was assaulted by assailants in military garb in the town of Chitungwiza. Freelance journalist Frank Chikowore spent two weeks as a ‘guest of the state’ on flimsy allegations of public violence relating to the torching of a bus in Harare’s Warren Park suburb following his arrest in Harare on April 15, 2008. He was later granted bail and subsequently acquitted. Fellow freelance journalist Brian Hungwe was slapped with a one-year ban for allegedly breaching sections of AIPPA. With the support of MISA Zimbabwe, the Supreme Court quashed the ban. In the eastern border city of Mutare, the police revived charges against freelance journalist Sydney Saize for contravening a section of POSA, which deals with communicating falsehoods. Freelance photojournalist Tsvangirai Mukwazhi was in early August forced to temporarily relocate with his family to South Africa after he was assaulted by the police and had his car confiscated. His crime was that he had covered MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the run-up to the March 29 election. As the year came to a close the assault on the media did not abate. Secretary for Information and Publicity George Charamba threatened to ban all foreign bureaux or local reporters working with foreign news organisations, accusing them of embarking on a propaganda assault on Zimbabwe. He directed the warning at Reuters, Al Jazeera, Agence France Presse (AFP), BBC, France 24 International and Associated Press (AP). He accused the bureaux of quoting President Mugabe out of context following his remarks that the country had arrested the cholera outbreak when addressing mourners at the burial of ruling party Zanu-PF Political Commissar Elliot Manyika in Harare on December 11, 2008. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -129- Media Institute of Southern Africa