Report unveiled on Zimbabwe’s cyber landscape

By Wallace Mawire* A new report titled: Ordeals in ‘the long-walk to Freedom’: The State of Internet Governance in Zimbabwe has been launched to assess the country’s cyber landscape. The report was prepared in partial fulfillment of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) and the Media Centre (MC) consortium’s research objective to examine the state of Internet Governance and Freedom in Zimbabwe. It is part of the project titled: “Increasing political and socio-economic liberties online: Support for New Advocacy campaigns and research on Internet Governance/Freedom in Zimbabwe” funded by USAID and Counterpart International. According to the consortium, as Zimbabwe struggles to transition from authoritarianism, internet freedoms have proven to be salient areas to pin hopes on. It is added that the authoritarian state has been aware of this and has put in place serious counter-measures. It is added that now that the country is bracing for 2018 elections, it is necessary to audit the state of internet governance /freedom because it is the modern space that the government has recently tried so hard to capture. The study found that, Zimbabwe currently suffers the machinations of an authoritarian regime that fears freeing the private media, social media and the internet in general in belief that doing so will prevent possible public scrutiny, transparency, criticism and exposure of its maladministration crimes to the electorate and consequent electoral defeat. It is reported that many restrictive laws, regulations and projects have been put in place to stifle internet freedoms, hinder access to online media, information and hinder freedom of expression, protest, advocacy and other barricades placed by deliberate policy omission. In addition, it is said that no clear and serious internet uptake promotions, programmes and projects have been done despite decades of government talk shop promises. The researchers add that to enhance internet freedoms under authoritarian internet governance framework in Zimbabwe, this study has made recommendations to key stakeholders which include government such as repealing or amendment of authoritarian legislation such as CODE, POSA, AIPPA, ICA among others to make them consistent with the Constitution of Zimbabwe. “This will pave way for internet democracy and enjoyment of peoples’ liberties online,’ according to the researchers. It has also been recommended that civic organizations and Human Rights Defenders across the country should create dense networking systems using modern ICTs through which to share ideas, skills and disseminate information and establish lasting solutions to internet freedom challenges. They also say that there is need for civic education targeting journalists to enhance their professionalism and adherence to human rights in their profession online, journalist forums, education and networking forums should be increased to link practitioners at national level to their fellows at grassroots levels across the country. “This will enhance sharing of skills and strategies and increase coverage and transparency of internet governance practices across the country,” according to the researchers. They add that Journalists should write and verify news for authenticity before publishing to avoid misinforming the public. “Many interviewees advised journalists to stick to the pillars of ethical journalism: objectivity, truth, balance, impartiality, fairness, accuracy and lack of bias,’ the report says. It also says that there is need to create a dense network of journalists in public media, private media, social media, freelance and citizen journalists at grassroots levels to enhance efficient reportage. It also says that Journalists should be trained on best ways to securitize their operations online to galvanize them against espionage, interference and sabotage. It is added that Journalists should network and coalesce to petition parliament on institutional and legislative reforms necessary for freeing internet based journalism. The private sector has been urged to also assist in exposing violation of liberties and jealously protect people’s accounts, transactions and communications in their custody. The international community has been urged to receive internet freedom reports and grievances from civic society and other players and assist in pressuring governments to resolve them, facilitating civic engagements and dialogues at regional and international levels to find strategies through which internet liberties can be enjoyed in such a way that does not compromise peace and security. It is added that internet freedom should be adopted and emphasized as values not separate from offline freedoms and its security should be guaranteed under existing regional and international mechanisms.