A s 2005 drew to a close, the government of Zimbabwe demonstrated increasing paranoia, intolerance and disdain for opposing views by seizing the passport of publisher Trevor Ncube, arresting Voice of the People Communications Trust (VOP) staff and confiscating equipment from the same organisation. Immigration officials in Bulawayo seized Ncube’s passport on December 8 2005 upon his arrival from South Africa. No reasons were advanced for the unlawful action other than that Ncube was on a list of citizens whose passports were to be withdrawn. Ncube is the chairman of Zimind, publishers of the Zimbabwe Independent and Zimbabwe Standard weeklies. He is also the publisher of the South African weekly Mail & Guardian. His passport was released after the Attorney General’s Office conceded that the seizure was unlawful. Barely a week later the authorities descended on the Harare offices of the VOP Radio station. They arrested three staff members and confiscated equipment, computers and administration files. The journalists were released without being charged after four nights at Harare Central Police station. Significantly, these actions against human freedoms and rights came to the fore in a year during which the country held its sixth parliamentary elections. Zimbabwe has been experiencing severe economic and political problems since 1998. The March elections, however, did not bring much-desired renewal as the ruling Zanu-PF failed to arrest the country’s economic decline. The launch of Operation Murambatsvina (‘Restore Order’) in May 2005 dented hopes of a government that is determined to correct its human rights record. Tens of thousands of people were made homeless after the government destroyed their shacks and businesses, effectively killing the country’s burgeoning informal sector. Undaunted by a subsequent United Nations report slamming the country’s human rights deficit, the Zanu-PF-dominated parliament passed the controversial Constitutional Amendment No 17 Bill in August 2005. This bill reintroduced the Senate and seeks to restrict the travel of individuals deemed to be acting against the economic interests of the country. Among other contentious clauses, the bill strips the right to the courts by aggrieved parties in cases where their land has been acquired by the state. The only appeal allowed is for compensation for the improvements on land. This violates Zimbabwe’s international obligations, particularly Article 7 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which includes “the right to appeal to competent authority organs against acts violating his fundamental rights”. While the government blames its economic misfortunes on recurrent droughts and international sanctions, it is these wanton human rights violations, which have earned the country its pariah status. Zimbabwe was ranked the least competitive of the 117 economies studied by the World Economic Forum. As has become commonplace, the police descended on demonstrators agitating for a new constitution and arrested the leaders of the National Constitutional Assembly. Protests against the high cost of living were extinguished in a similar fashion, resulting in the arrest of leaders of the umbrella Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Media environment Zimbabwe is far from conforming with its constitutional, regional and international obligaSo This Is Democracy? 2005 -142- Media Institute of Southern Africa