The three parties to the then inclusive government notably Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC, further agreed on the need to reconstitute the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) and the board of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. It was expected that the reconstituted ZMMT and ZBC boards would be independent and representative enough to guard against political interference with the editorial independence of the state-controlled Zimpapers and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) respectively. These developments which have a bearing on citizens rights to freedom of expression, media freedom, and access to information, should thus be viewed against the deteriorating economic situation in a country where the majority of its 13 million people are leaving beneath the bread basket line of nearly $600 a month. Unemployment is pegged at more than 80 percent amid reports that 300 employees were being retrenched every week in the wake of the closure of 700 companies. The country continued to face a serious liquidity crunch with nine companies going into liquidation between September and October 2013 while 12 were placed under judicial management. Capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector also continued to dip hovering at about 39 percent. v Media Environment When President Robert Mugabe officially opened the First Session of the Eighth Parliament on 18 September 2013, he assured the nation that Zimbabwe would uphold the new constitution. He then made reference to new Bills that would be brought to Parliament to underpin envisaged reforms in line with the new Constitution ,but did not make specific reference to the media sector. This was indeed telling in that 100 days (as of end of November 2013) into his new government, several of the repressive media laws in contention, enacted by Zanu PF’s pre-GNU government remained firmly entrenched in the statutes. These laws range from the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Interception of Communications Act (ICA), the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and the Censorship and Entertainment Controls Act, among others.