"Weapons of oppressors": COVID-19 regulatory framework and its impact on journalism practices in Southern Africa

The chapter examines the regulatory frameworks that were put in place by governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 and the impact it had on journalism practices in the region. African governments with the help of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines crafted laws and policies which prohibited gatherings. These measures limited the conduct of journalism, i.e. gathering and dissemination of news, during the pandemic. While these laws were implemented to avert the virus, we argue in this chapter that some regimes used the pandemic to muzzle the media. We analyse laws that were gazetted in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and South Africa to combat/ address COVID-19, and evaluate their impact on the practice of journalism in the region through the lens of securitisation theory. The securitisation theory indicates that by declaring something or phenomenon a threat, it ensures that such a phenomenon is moved out of the sphere of normal politics into the realm of emergency politics, where it can be dealt with without the normal (democratic) rules and regulations of policymaking. Methodologically, the chapter uses document analysis which is the systematic evaluation and review of documents. The study found that Zimbabwe and Tanzania enacted laws meant to restrict journalistic practice and information management flow under the cover of the pandemic. The laws enacted were targeted at critical and oppositional media. South Africa was a complete opposite as journalists were capacitated by the state to function properly during the pandemic even when other citizens’ rights were limited during the lockdown period.