In that regard, the Parliament of Zimbabwe emerged as this year’s most open and transparent institution while the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe is the most closed and secretive institution. AIPPA should thus be replaced with separate, standalone and focused pieces of legislation which respectively deal with the right to privacy, access to information, administration of the Zimbabwe Media Commission, and lastly, regulation of the media. In doing so, the government should be guided by the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration and African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Model Law on Access to Information in Africa. ❖ Media Professionalism Findings by international observers to Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections on the bias of state-controlled media such as Zimpapers and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, buttresses calls and agitations for their transformation to secure their editorial independence as espoused in the Constitution. Both Zimpapers and ZBC are supposed to serve and fulfil a public service mandate as provided under Section 61 of the Constitution which provides for freedom of expression and media freedom. This has not been the case for decades now owing to interference with their editorial independence by the Executive. The findings by the European Union Observer Mission, National Democratic Institute, African Union and SADC observer missions, are therefore not new at all, but compel the transformation of these entities. The African Union Election Observer Mission (in its preliminary report), noted that it had in the past recommended for measures to be undertaken to guarantee equal access to the state broadcaster to all contestants during elections and for the full implementation of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) to ensure balanced and pluralistic media. “Regrettably, these recommendations were not implemented. The media environment still remains largely polarised,” AUEOM noted. The observer missions generally noted that the state media failed to abide by its legal obligations to ensure equitable and fair treatment of all political parties and candidates and was “heavily biased” in favour of the incumbent president (Mnangagwa) in their election related coverage.