The Censorship Act84 has been applied repeatedly to ban all forms of art perceived to be ‘politically offensive’. The grounds for banning published material, for instance, are spelt out in sections 13 and 33 of the Act. The grounds upon which restriction could be exercised have already been discussed in detail above. The government’s continuing failure and/or refusal to issue community radio licences to all but commercial operators remains conduct inconsistent with its international obligations that require it to facilitate the dissemination of information through all possible channels. The government is accused of granting licences to applicants with links to stateowned companies or those with government ties. Amnesty International on 20 May 201585 stated that “Not only have the government supporters been the only ones to receive licences, but those attempting to set up independent services have been arrested and targeted simply for trying to educate, inform and offer a platform for debate. This is a violation of freedom of expression.” The Criminal Code creates the crime of criminal defamation and other vague offences in the form of insult laws such as sections 31 and 33, (insulting the office of the President) and communicating falsehood. The courts in the case Nevanji Madanhire and Nqaba Matshazi
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Attorney-General86 displayed an unwillingness to completely strike off criminal defamation from the Criminal Code as it declared that particular case only required the court to look at criminal defamation in terms of the previous Constitution and went on to declare the crime unconstitutional in terms of that Constitution. It is submitted that the Constitutional Court missed an opportunity to advance the right to freedom of expression by allowing a technicality to limit the scope of its judgment. It must be stated that nothing prevented the Court from requiring the parties to address the argument of constitutionality within the Censorship and Entertainments Control Act [Chapter 10:04] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/zimbabwe-radio-stranglehold-gaggingfreedom-of-expression/ 86 CCZ-02-14. 84 85 68 | P a g e