veteran broadcasters John Matinde and Brenda Moyo, journalists Sandra Nyaira, Tichaona Sibanda and Blessing Zulu. These exiled media practitioners were referred to as “clowns and sell-outs” determined to advance the agenda of Western imperialist propaganda. A meeting organised by MISA Zimbabwe under its Community Radio Initiatives in Dete, Matabeleland North was aborted after Zanu-PF councillor Thembinkosi Sibanda said the organisers did not have police clearance in terms of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). The meeting, attended by about 1 000 people, had been scheduled for October 7 2005 to brief residents on the Community Radio Initiatives and the concept of community radio stations. This extreme intolerance has resulted in at least 90 Zimbabwean journalists, including several of the nation’s prominent media professionals, being exiled in South Africa, Namibia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Unemployment, political violence and human rights abuses have fuelled a steady stream of emigration from Zimbabwe since the late 1990s resulting in an estimated four million Zimbabweans now living in the Diaspora4. Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act With the signing into law of the Criminal (Codification and Reform) Bill on June 2 2005, it will be increasingly difficult for the few remaining journalists to perform their newsgathering tasks without fear or favour. Journalists now risk spending 20 years in jail as the new act introduces harsher penalties than those provided for under POSA and AIPPA. A journalist convicted of contravening Section 31 (a) of the act will be sentenced to jail for a period not exceeding 20 years or to a fine of up to Z$2,5 million or to both such fine and imprisonment. Under Section 15 of POSA, which is similar to Section 31 of the Codification Act, one is liable to a five-year jail term or alternatively a fine of Z$100 000 or both imprisonment and fine. Section 31 (a) of the act, which is virtually a regurgitation of Section 15 of POSA, makes it an offence for anyone inside or outside Zimbabwe to publish or communicate to any other person a statement which is wholly or materially false with the intention or realising that there is real risk or possibility of any of the following: i. Inciting or promoting public disorder or public violence or endangering public safety. ii. Adversely affecting the defence or economic interests of Zimbabwe. iii. Undermining the public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Service or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe iv. Interfering with, disrupting or interrupting any essential service. An offence will still have been committed even if the publication or communication does not result in any of the envisaged scenarios. Section 31 (b) of the act is an extraction from Section 80 of AIPPA, which deals with issues linked to the publication or communication of falsehoods. Under AIPPA, once convicted, one is liable to two years’ imprisonment or a Z$400 000 fine. In terms of the Codification Act, once convicted under Section 31 (b), one is now liable to a 20-year jail term or Z$2,5 million fine5. Section 33 of the Codification Act is similar in all respects to Section 16 of POSA. It deals with “undermining the authority of or insulting the President”. It prohibits the making, publicly and intentionally, of any false statement (including an act or gesture) about or concerning the President or Acting President if the person knows or realises that there is a risk or possibility of endangering feelings of hostility towards or causing hatred, contempt or ridicule of him/her, whether in his/her official or personal capacity. So This Is Democracy? 2005 -144- Media Institute of Southern Africa