the assault of Tsvangirai Mukwa and the continued harassment, unlawful arrests and detention of journalists in Zimbabwe. • ALERT Date: December 18, 2007 Persons: Media in Zimbabwe Violation: Legislation (threatening legislation) The proposed amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) gazetted on December 14, 2007, were fast tracked through Parliament on December 18, 2007, without any meaningful debate on the contentious provisions of the enabling Bills. All the Bills which included the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill were passed without being referred to the relevant portfolio committees as required by the Standing Rules and Orders of Parliament. The Bills were sanctioned by the two opposition factions of the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF during the SADC-initiated talks mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. St Marys Member of Parliament Job Sikhala expressed his strong reservations on the quality of the Bills noting that the requirement under AIPPA for journalists and mass media service providers to register with the proposed Zimbabwe Media Commission was not justified in a democratic society. Sikhala said journalists as is the case with all other professions should regulate themselves. • ALERT Date: December 5, 2007 Persons: Bright Chibvuri Violation: Censored The trial of Bright Chibvuri, editor of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions’ The Worker magazine charged under the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which had been set to continue on December 5, 2007, has again been postponed due to the ongoing strike by magistrates. Resumption of the trial has now been set for January 31, 2008. Chibvuri’s trial was postponed indefinitely on November 5, 2007, following a countrywide strike by magistrates. Chibvuri who was arrested in Plumtree on March 3, 2007, spent two nights in police custody and was only released on March 5, 2007, when he appeared before a Plumtree magistrate on charges of contravening Section 83 of AIPPA which penalises the practice of journalism without accreditation. At the time of his arrest, Chibvuri had already applied for accreditation but had not received a response from the Media and Information Commission (MIC). He has since been duly accredited. • ALERT Date: November 21, 2007 Persons: John Nyashanu, two freelance journalists Violation: Beaten, censored On November 21 2007, SABC correspondent John Nyashanu and two other freelance journalists were harassed by rowdy youths outside the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party offices in Harare amid reports that one of them was slapped during the melee. Nyashanu confirmed to MISA Zimbabwe that he had been subjected to all manner of insults and abuse by the youths who barred him from covering a march by the party’s national women’s assembly who had converged at the party headquarters seeking audience with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. So This Is Democracy? 2007 -128- Media Institute of Southern Africa