Media Environment On 20 May 2019 Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana, held a progress update meeting on the media law reform process. The meeting provided opportunity to discuss other media related issues such as licensing of community radio stations, appointment of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe’s board, as well as progress on Zimbabwe’s migration to digital broadcasting. The Zimbabwe government has so far based its media law reform process on the repeal of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). This law currently regulates three broad areas of law namely, access to information, data protection and regulation of the media industry. This came after government conceded to breaking AIPPA into three Bills, i.e. the Freedom of Information Bill, Protection of Personal Information Bill and Zimbabwe Media Commission Bill. The Broadcasting Services Act was also to be duly amended. However, as the year 2019 came to an end, no timelines or indications were given on when and whether other statutory provisions that restrict media freedom would actually be reviewed and amended or repealed. Contrary to popular belief, it is the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act that has generally been used to violate free expression and media freedom in Zimbabwe, when compared with AIPPA. Crimes found in the Criminal Law Code such as the publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State, or undermining the authority of the President, have been used to punish offenders for publication of information that portrays the State or President in an unflattering manner. Suffice to say laws such as the discredited AIPPA, used to licence and regulate the media; the Official Secrets Act (OSA), to broadly embargo information held by public bodies and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), to hinder free establishment of private radio stations, remained entrenched in the country’s statutes. Other restrictive laws include the Censorship and Entertainment Controls Act (CECA), and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. This should also be viewed against the 8