New law to govern social media

Source: The Herald – Breaking news

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 Dr Jenfan Muswere

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke, Senior Reporter

GOVERNMENT is crafting new law to govern social media platforms to address the growing challenges posed by unregulated use.

Speaking at a Ministers Meet the Media meeting in Harare yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere, said the new law would help enhance governance of social media, which is lacking not only in Zimbabwe, but across Africa.

“Social media is not properly governed, and this has led to a situation where people are chasing shadows — shadows that have no meaning, shadows run by ghost accounts operated by individuals seeking to demonise their own country,” said Dr Muswere.

“In other cases, we have people who have transitioned from journalists to ‘cashvists’ and politicians and they do not have any iota of information in terms of the access to information and the current Government structure.”

Social media laws are regulations, statutes and guidelines that govern the usage of social networking sites by making the users accountable without denying them their fundamental rights.

The laws differ widely in other countries, although many African countries do not have the laws yet.

Added Dr Muswere: “Part of our responsibility as a ministry is to ensure that social media is governed effectively.

“We are preparing new legislation to regulate these platforms and hold users accountable.”

He also said Zimbabwe has a robust governance architecture that ensured access to information through ministers, commissioners, permanent secretaries and other officials.

“The media has a critical role in nation-building, in terms of identifying any issues, negative or positive that impact on our Vision 2030. We urge journalists to be ethical, verify facts, and seek information from official Government platforms. At the same time, journalists should always be ethical and give an opportunity to verify facts and to validate any issues,” he said.

To further demonstrate the Government’s transparency, Dr Muswere said the ministry would continue with the question and answer sessions with ministers as well as media tours to familiarise journalists with Government projects.

“We are a transparent, efficient, and effective Government. This tour will provide the media with first-hand access to our achievements,” he said.

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