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New accreditation fees intended to deprive Zimbabweans of alternative sources of information
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
January 08, 2009

MMPZ notes with disappointment the punitive US-dollar-denominated fees to be paid by foreign correspondents and news agencies operating in Zimbabwe for applications, accreditation and registration to practice their profession, as reported in the January 6 issue of The Herald. This new fees structure, published pursuant to the provisions of the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, clearly represents an intensification of the Zimbabwean authorities' sustained campaign to block access to the foreign media seeking to cover the Zimbabwean story, thus depriving Zimbabweans (and the world community) of a variety of alternative sources of information to the output of the government-controlled media. In fact, MMPZ believes that all such registration and licensing regulations that exist under the Act constitute a clear violation of regionally and internationally recognised guarantees safeguarding freedom of expression and of the media and should be condemned. Such regulation of the media and prohibitive fees structures also contravene the spirit of the global political agreement signed on 15th September 2008.

MMPZ therefore calls on the Zimbabwean authorities to immediately revise any fees charged for the registration of any journalist or media organisation to no more than a token administrative cost.

Most importantly, MMPZ urges any new government to commit itself to the following:

• Ensure that any media activity is not rendered dependent upon any form of statutory registration or admission and that mechanisms promoting media self-regulation are created and strengthened;
• Encourage a diverse and independent print and electronic media, including foreign media;
• Repeal of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act as a matter of urgency, and remove all those clauses in the Broadcasting Services Act, Public Order and Security Act, and all other pieces of legislation that hinder the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas without hindrance, as guaranteed under Zimbabwe's Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such repressive laws have no legitimate purpose and are not necessary in a democratic society.

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