MISA CALLS FOR SUPPORT
The government of President Robert Mugabe has embarked on a programme of action designed to curtail and in some cases deny his people basic rights that he guaranteed them by taking an oath to uphold the inviolability the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the tenets of international and regional agreements signed by his government.
Over the past two years, freedom of expression and freedom of the press have come under an ever-tightening siege that has often spilled over into open violence and acts of sabotage against the media. This period has also seen the introduction of draconian ill-advised legislation enacted to handicap the private media, curtail the powers of the judiciary, and to strengthen the state security apparatus to deal with any activity considered to be damaging to the image of the president and his government. At this very moment, the Zimbabwean Government is busy pushing additional legislation that will ensure a complete management system to deal with dissent, whether expressed in the media or the political activities of the opposition.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) sees it as its duty to bring to your attention that, as citizens of the world, we need to stand up and put our voices together to express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. On January 18, MISA and its partners kicked off a campaign to bring to the attention of world leaders through international organisations that the situation requires international intervention. MISA has written to a number of organisations calling on them to use channels and means at their disposal to engage in dialogue with the Government of Zimbabwe to resolve this situation.
We are calling on you to assist us by adding your voice to the various actions initiated by MISA. We invite you to participate in the dialogue on Zimbabwe, sign a petition that will be sent to world forums, fax your views to President Mugabe, write your own letter to world organisations. For background information, we invite you to read the letters sent to various organisations and to visit our page on media violation in Zimbabwe.
For more information visit:
www.misa.org/protest