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Tuesday, January 22, 2002 - Web posted at 4:14:09 pm GMT

HARARE - Zimbabwe's government postponed parliamentary debate on a controversial media bill on Tuesday, fuelling speculation that it was divided over proposed laws critics say would muzzle the media ahead of presidential polls.

Debate on the media bill, which would bar foreign correspondents from the country and impose new penalties for reporting that caused "alarm and despondency", was due to begin on Tuesday.

But Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa adjourned parliament to Wednesday and did not say when the media bill would be back before the house.

The bill has provoked criticism from Zimbabwean media groups and foreign governments, and some government supporters fear the unpopular legislation could make it hard for President Robert Mugabe to win re-election against a strong opposition challenge in the March 9-10 vote.

"The question is not whether we need rules. That is a given. The problem is whether we need to do this in the current climate," one parliamentarian of the ruling ZANU-PF party said on Tuesday.

Mugabe and his inner circle are facing growing international criticism for their handling of the country's political and economic crisis, the government's human rights record and its passing of laws to tighten ZANU-PF's grip on power.

The government temporarily withdrew the media bill from parliament last Wednesday to accommodate some "reasonable" amendments.

Another ZANU-PF MP said ruling party members had made 36 amendments to the bill, but most of these covered public access to government documents and the role of civil servants.

The privately owned Daily News newspaper on Tuesday quoted sources close to Information Minister Jonathan Moyo as saying there would be major changes to the bill. These included scrapping plans to make all journalists subject to licensing by a government-appointed commission, the newspaper said.

"He (Moyo) has been told to stop using the bill to fight his own personal wars with editors and other journalists and to revert to the previous system of accreditation, used internationally," the newspaper said.

Government officials have dismissed speculation that there would be major changes. Moyo was in parliament on Tuesday, but he was not available for comment.

Mugabe, who has headed ZANU-PF since the 1970s and led the former Rhodesia to independence from Britain in 1980, has not yet commented publicly on the media bill. This has fuelled speculation that the party was keeping its options open on the legislation until Mugabe's position was clear.

ZANU-PF had rallied its forces in the hours before parliament was to begin debate, summoning its 93 MPs to a meeting to ensure its majority in the 150-seat house.

ZANU-PF chief whip Joram Gumbo used state radio and television to urge all its MPs to attend the party caucus and the subsequent parliamentary session at 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT). Traditionally ZANU-PF has summoned its legislators to meetings before pushing controversial bills through parliament.

Zimbabwean media groups petitioned the government and parliament on Monday to throw out the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, saying existing legislation was adequate to curb defamation and maintain public order.

But a senior official said at the weekend the bill was "crucial to restoring law and order in a media industry thriving on hate journalism and abuse of journalistic privileges".

Media groups in Zimbabwe said in a petition: "This bill is alarming in the manner in which it heavily restricts individuals and journalists accessing information and the unfettered discretion it confers on the minister in charge of the Act." Nampa-Reuters