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Zim bars e.tv from elections
23/03/2008 14:56 - (SA)
Harare - The Zimbabwean government has banned South African private television station e.tv from covering next Saturday's general elections, say reports.
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 Zimbabwean-born reporter was fined by a court at the time for operating without authorisation.
However, the government had cleared the public broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to cover the elections.
Meanwhile, secretary for information George Charamba said the government was considering requests by international news organisations to beef up staff numbers ahead of the elections.
Foreign correspondents thrown out of Zim
Charamba said: "The committee also took a sympathetic view to requests for more support staff by international news organisations already accredited to Zimbabwe.
"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 would 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 included Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP), Reuters and al-Jazeera.
Following the passing of the media law in 2002, several foreign correspondents had been thrown out of the country and journalists from the independent press arrested and detained.
A jail sentence of up to two years was imposed to any journalist operating in Zimbabwe without accreditation.
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