• Suppressing freedom of expression ahead of the next elections, the date of which is still unknown.

• Preventing the creation of any independent radio or TV station in Zimbabwe, thereby ensuring that the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) keeps its monopoly of broadcasting.

• Exercising strict control over the state media, with the help of your entourage.

• Constantly harassing the privately-owned print media.

• Dubbing the foreign media persona non grata in Zimbabwe.

• Preventing the power-sharing government from functioning properly, thereby blocking media reforms.

• Introducing laws that have drastically curtailed media freedom. They include the 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which was designed to finish off the independent press, above all The Daily News, then Zimbabwe’s most widely-read newspaper. They also include an Orwellian 2007 law that lets the authorities intercept communications without asking the courts.

• Placing reporters and editors under surveillance, as you did, for example, after your government’s electoral difficulties in 2008, in order to assess their loyalty to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

• Having opposition activists and journalists arrested after the same electoral difficulties and subjected to grotesque trials on charges of participating in a “terrorist” conspiracy to overthrow your presidency.

• Encouraging impunity for the 2007 murder of Edward Chikomba, a freelance cameraman who used to work for ZBC. His body was found on 31 March 2007, two days after he was kidnapped by suspected intelligence agents. No serious investigation has ever been carried out.

You should be called to account for these gross violations of freedom of information, which contravene article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.