HAR Strat. Litigation for Media+Access The proposed intervention seeks to enhance MISA’s work towards media reforms. MISA Zimbabwe will achieve this through strategic litigation against anti-constitutional provisions still found in Zimbabwe’s statutes. This project is predicated on the 2013, Zimbabwe enacted a new constitution with progressive media and human rights provisions. It is also based on the Election Observer Mission Reports of the July 2018 election which flagged the media as one area in need of democratic reform. Despite lobbying efforts, the implementation of these provisions still remains a pipe-dream. This project comes at an opportune time as the government of Zimbabwe is currently in the process of enacting new media legislation targeting Freedom of Information, Cyber Crime and Data Protection, Media Commission. Some of the proposals contained in these new pieces of legislation fall short of the provisions of the constitution. Thus this project will seek to litigate on the shortcomings of these new laws and their incompatibility with the constitution. The project will also leverage on existing court judgments that have not been enforced. This project will be implemented through litigation. Lobby and advocacy has over the years shown that it is a long process which depends on the good will of the government to transform itself through engaging in democratic law reform process. For example, it took MISA Zimbabwe almost two decades of lobby and advocacy for the constitution of Zimbabwe to explicitly guarantee freedom of expression, access to information and media freedom. Therefore it is of strategic importance to take the process of media law reform a notch higher through testing the laws that govern Freedom of Expression (FoE), Access to Information (ATI) and media freedom’s compliance with the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution. Although MISA will continue to lobby and advocate for media reforms using support from other donors, this activity specifically focuses on strategic litigation. Under this project, strategic litigation will have a particular focus on: a. Systematic failure by government institutions to comply with the law. Experience from Zimbabwe has shown that initiating a lawsuit can lead to rapid release of information and may even encourage requests from government departments for technical assistance in implementing the law. b. Misapplication or restrictive application of the law. c. Discriminatory application of the law and discriminatory provision of information. d. Certain flaws in the law, for example ambiguities regarding the range of government and parastatal institutions covered by the law, or the lack of a “harm” or “public interest test” for evaluating exemptions. In Zimbabwe where the right of access to information enjoys constitutional recognition, litigation to address flawed legislation can  be brought to the highest level. Laws targeted in this proposed project are those that currently do not meet the constitutional standards set out in sections 57, 61 and 62 of the Zimbabwe Constitution, namely protecting the rights to privacy, freedom of the media and expression, and access to information respectively. The intervention will seek to broaden the reforms agenda beyond the current laws namely Freedom of Information, Data Protection and Cyber Crime, Media Commission Law and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA). Laws to be targeted also include the Censorship and Entertainment Controls Act (CECA), Interception of Communications Act (ICA), Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) Commercialization Act, Official Secrets Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, among others. Over the years, MISA has recorded a number of victories through litigation for example, the striking out of criminal defamation prov isions w