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Police demand registration certificate from publisher/editor
Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe Chapter (MISA-Zimbabwe)
January 15, 2003

In a move that is likely to signal the beginning of the harassment and arrests of publishers and journalists over non-compliance with the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), police officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the city of Gweru visited Willy Muponda the publisher of "The Sun" a local weekly paper requesting that he produce his registration certificate. Senior officer commanding that province later questioned him demanding the registration certificate and information on the operations of the community publication.

Muponda was visited on 14 January by police officers who requested that he produce the registration certificate by the end of the day. The officers did not specify what would happen if Muponda fails to produce the certificate.

In a telephone interview with MISA-Zimbabwe Muponda said that when the police came to his offices he was not around and he decided to go to the police station today, 15 January 2003.

"The police officers harassed me and asked me whether I had registered. They demanded the receipt of the $500 000 registration fee that should have been paid to the Media Commission," Muponda said.

Muponda also informed MISA-Zimbabwe that the police demanded details of directors of the paper and the certificate of incorporation of the publication. The police, Muponda told MISA-Zimbabwe, told him that his paper was anti government and queried a story the paper once wrote on an incident in which a police officer was accused of having beaten a civilian to death in the town.

Muponda said he was questioned by the Officer Commanding Midlands province and also the one commanding the police fraud division in the same province. "I was surprised that such senior police officers questioned me. I thought I would be interviewed by junior officers," said Muponda. Muponda said that he feared for his safety and was at a loss on what to do next. Under AIPPA the police are not empowered to demand registration certificates from media houses but such a process is initiated by the Media and Information Commission itself.

He said he was informed that he was being watched. According to Muponda all community newspapers in the province of Midlands did submit registration forms minus the $500 000 required. Many of the papers are said to have informed the commission that they could not afford the fee. The deadline for registration was 31 December 2002.

For more information:
Rashweat Mukundu Research and Information Officer MISA-Zimbabwe
E mail: misa@mweb.co.zw

Visit the MISA-Zimbabwe fact sheet

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