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| author/source:AFP |
| published:Sun 23-Mar-2008 |
| posted on this site:Mon 24-Mar-2008 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| It had previously breached media and security laws in a report on diamond smuggling |
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The Zimbabwean government has banned South African private television station e.tv from covering next Saturday's general elections, state media said on Sunday. The Sunday Mail said that e.tv, South Africa's only commercial terrestrial station, had not been accredited for the joint parliamentary and presidential polls as it had previously breached media and security laws in a report on diamond smuggling last year. The station's Zimbabwe-born reporter was fined by a court at the time for operating with authorisation. However, the government has cleared the public broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to cover the elections.
Meanwhile, secretary for information George Charamba meanwhile said the government was considering requests by international news organisations to beef up staff numbers ahead of the elections. "The committee also took a sympathetic view to requests for more support staff by international news organisations already accredited to Zimbabwe," Charamba told the paper. "It is emphasised that such support staff would have to come under bureau chiefs of those organisations who will be held fully accountable for the conduct of any such news personnel." Last week, Charamba said the southern African country will closely screen foreign media intending to cover the elections amid suspicions uninvited observers and security personnel might impersonate western reporters.
International organisations already working in Zimbabwe include Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP), Reuters and al-Jazeera. Following the passing of the media law in 2002, several foreign correspondents have been thrown out of the country and journalists from the independent press arrested and detained. A jail sentence of up to two years is imposed to any journalist operating in Zimbabwe without accreditation.
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