ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK
NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON CONFLICT MANAGEMENT MECHANISMS
WORKSHOP RECOMMENDATIONS
Harare, Zimbabwe
30 – 31 July 2008
I.
PREAMBLE
Mindful of joint civil society resolutions on various issues including elections;
Having deliberated on the conduct of the 2008 Harmonized Election and Presidential Runoff Election from
various perspectives;
Having drawn from the experience of other countries in the SADC region, particularly Kenya;
Taking cognisant of the current political developments and the need for further electoral reforms in
Zimbabwe, participants of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network’s National Workshop on Electoral
Conflict Management and Electoral Reform resolved as follows:
II. RECOMMENDATIONS
Regarding aspects of the political and electoral environment which have a bearing on election
outcomes, it was recommended as follows:
Media
It was agreed that the role of the media is to objectively provide equal and impartial coverage of events and
issues for all election contestants. Equal access to state media for all political parties in the form of both
news coverage as well as campaign advertisements was noted as critical.
It was further recommended that there should be no selective accreditation of media houses or journalists
to cover elections, particularly foreign media.
To ensure the people have access to information, it was agreed that there was real need for opening up of
the airwaves to other players. It was recommended that lawmakers revisit the Broadcasting Services Act to
ensure that the law translates to practice in the broadcasting arena.
The meeting also recommended the reduction of import duty on regional media as this had a negative
impact on citizen’s access to information.
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