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Outlawing of criminal defamation (2016)
Where
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
When
2020
2020
Who
Constitutional court of zimbabwe
Constitutional court of zimbabwe
Website of the policy/measure
Website
Website
Read the full report
Go to full report
Go to full report
Description of the policy/measure
The measure abolishes section 96 of the criminal law codification and reform act that used to criminalize journalists who may defame people in the discharge of their duties. this gave freedom to journalists and the media fraternity to report on issues without any fear or favor, previously journalists were able to report but had a lot of fears as chances of them being brought to the courts on defamation charges were high thus they could not cover all the issues clearly. the move marks the dawn of a new era for zimbabwean media practitioners and is a great leap forward toward the alignment of the domestic legal order with international benchmarks on media freedom and freedom of expression
2005 Convention Monitoring Framework Goal(s)
Area(s) of Monitoring
Cultural Domain(s)
Results achieved
Journalists including arts journalists now operate without the fear of being arrested or sued. the measure gives them the opportunity to cover more stories enhancing media content diversity.