Writers Association. Although government established the NAC, it appears
overwhelmed by its mandate resulting in limited effectiveness.
Accordingly, recommendations issued by Farida Shaheed, the UN Special
Rapportuer in the Field of Cultural Rights, are applicable in Zimbabwe almost
in their entirety. Some of them have been summarised below.
5.2
Recommendations to Government
Reform the Censorship Board to be independent from the executive and
constitute it with a wide range of stakeholders with expertise on works of
art.
The practice of pre-censorship must be abolished from the procedure of
administering censorship by the Censorship Board.
When reviewing and amending the Act, it is necessary to state the specific
and relevant qualifications of the Censorship Board members in Section 3 of
the Censorship Act.
The composition of the Censorship Board in Section 3 of the Censorship Act
must be multi-stakeholder including representatives from art organisations.
The Minister must adopt regulations to regulate the Censorship Board when
examining materials in terms of the Act. Other aspects to be addressed
include the prescribed form for applications for examination of materials,
the prescribed time within which the Board must render a decision following
the lodging of an application, and generally to regulate the application
process.
Aspects of rights to a fair trial and precepts of administrative justice need to
be incorporated in the Act to allow decisions of this Board to be challenged.
There is need to amend the Act to provide for financial probity of the
Censorship Board, and for public reporting on the work of the Board. This is
due to the fact that the Board is underfunded and sometimes ends up
relying on the police to enforce certain sections of the Act.
The Censorship Act must be reformed in Section 20 to make provision for
appeals against the decisions of the Appeal Board.
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