Criminal defamation remain a valid law in Zimbabwe

Criminal defamation will remain a valid law in Zimbabwe after the Constitutional Court yesterday clarified that its celebrated judgment of 2014 only ruled the law to be in violation of the Old Constitution and not the new supreme law.

The highest court in the land, through Justice Bharat Patel, issued a declaratory order that agreed with Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa's submissions that the judgment in the case of Standard journalists Nevanji Madanhire and Nqaba Matshazi was made only in relation to the old Constitution.

The judgment issued last year was wrongly interpreted by many journalists who celebrated the outcome believing that it was the end of the most feared media law.