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Radio stations granted accreditation to cover elections
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek
April 01, 2005

The South Africa-based Talk Radio 702, and its sister station, 567 CapeTalk, were granted accreditation, late in the day on 24 March 2005, to cover the 31 March general elections in Zimbabwe. This followed an initial refusal by Zimbabwean authorities to grant accreditation to the stations.

Talk Radio 702's news editor Katy Katopodis told MISA that the stations had appealed to the South African Editors' Forum (SANEF) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for assistance.

"Luckily our deputy minister of foreign affairs, Aziz Pahad, intervened," she told MISA, adding that three journalists are currently covering the elections for the stations. Two of them are based in the capital, Harare, and in Bulawayo, while the third reporter is moving throughout the country.

Katopodis informed MISA that the reporters have, to date, not experienced any obstacles or interference in their work.

"Zimbabwean officials have been extremely courteous and helpful. We're just glad that we have reporters on the ground to report on the elections there," she told MISA.

BACKGROUND:
On 23 March, the stations were informed that their applications for accreditation had been turned down.

Last month three journalists, Jan Raath and Brian Latham, who both work for a number of British and South African news organisations, and Angus Shaw, of the Associated Press, left Zimbabwe after their offices were raided and they were interrogated by police about allegations that they broke the country's media and security laws (see IFEX alerts of 23, 18 and 16 February 2005). Following their departure, only a handful of foreign correspondents remain in Zimbabwe, including the tiny Reuters and AFP bureaus.

Earlier this month the government-controlled Media and Information Commission cancelled the "Weekly Times" newspaper's licence (see alerts of 1 March and 12 January 2005). This was the fourth independent newspaper to be closed in Zimbabwe since 2002.

The "Daily News", the "Daily News on Sunday", and the "Tribune" were all closed previously (see alerts of 15 March 2005, 22 September, 15, 14 and 10 June, 11 and 6 February, 23, 22, 16, 13 and 12 January 2004, and others). In January, President Robert Mugabe signed a law requiring journalists to be accredited by the government (see alerts of 11 January 2005, 11 November, 18 October, 25 June and 6 February 2004, and others).

For further information, contact Zoé Titus, Programme Manager, Media Freedom Monitoring, MISA, Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232 975, fax: +264 61 248 016, e-mail: research@misa.org, Internet: http://www.misa.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of MISA.

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