Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)
9 January 2009
press release
The government has gazetted steep new fees under the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The move will see foreign-based media houses fork out more than US$30,000 in application and permission to operate fees.
Foreign media organisations wishing to establish a representative office in Zimbabwe will pay an application fee of US$10,000 and a further US$20,000 and US$2,000 in permission to operate and permit administration fees, respectively.
Local journalists working for foreign media organisations will pay US$1,000 and US$3,000 in individual application and accreditation fees.
Temporary accreditation for a foreign journalist has been fixed at US$1,500. This contrasts sharply with the complimentary accreditation and administration fees for journalists from within and outside of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which are pegged at US$150 and US$200 respectively.
MISA-Zimbabwe views these prohibitively steep fees as designed to discourage and frustrate foreign news organisations and local journalists working for them from operating in Zimbabwe, given the government's hostility to the media. While the fees for local media organisations are significantly lower - pegged at Z$10 billion (approx. US$1), Z$30 billion (approx. US$3) and Z$20 billion (approx. US$2) in application, registration and renewal of registration fees, respectively - these should be viewed in the context of an already constricted media environment and the harsh economic conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe.
Journalists working for local organisations as well as local freelance journalists will also face new fees under the law.
The fees were gazetted in the absence of the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC), the statutory media regulatory body which is to be the successor to the Media and Information Commission (MIC). The body will be tasked with the functions of media registration and regulation, and accreditation of journalists. The ZMC, however, remains to be constituted following the amendments to AIPPA, the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) and Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which were signed into law by President Robert Mugabe on 11 January 2008.
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NONSENS again from dixieboy: raising media transactional fees by the Government of Zimbabwe makes Zimbabwe a communist state "outright."
SENSE: Communism is a classless society, according to Karl Marx and his epigoni: Lenin, Stalin, and others numberless.
BRIGADE ON SENSE AND NONSENSE IN THE CITY OF METHODOLOGICALLY GUIDED HERMENEUTICAL AFRICAN REASON, HARARE.
ERRATUM: Please substitue the lexeme "NONSENSE" for "NONSENS" in the first sentence of the post supra.
EAGLE EYED EDITORS OF THE BRIGADE ON SENSE AND NONSENSE IN THE CITY OF AFRICAN PHILOLOGICAL PRECISION, HARARE.
ERRATUM: Please substitute the lexeme "substitute" for "substitue" in the first sentence of the post supra.
The ultimate eagle eyed editors of the Brigade on sense and nonsense in the City of the perfect concordance of thought and expression, HARARE.
ERRATUM: Please substitute the lexeme "substitute" for "substitue" in the first sentence of the post supra.
The ultimate eagle eyed editors of the Brigade on sense and nonsense in the City of the perfect concordance of thought and expression, HARARE.
I post one simple, in real english statement and my post gets 4, irrational pieces of gibberish. I guess this reflects the mentality of the governance of downtown Harare. Is the Body count from Cholera over 2000 yet?
Not officially but expect it is already well over. The official count should pass 2000 within this month. Sad really The Israel Gaza crisis has killed less than 1000 and the UN calls for a ceasefire, Mugabe kills another few thousand and SA,China et al block it.
What a noxious concantenation of obscurantism!
Super sized NONSENSE from dixieboy, rhodie for life and Femme, Schizo-bipolar, supreme soupist Slyvia Goalpost Blyden. Wonders never cease.
Side show: The concordance of obsequious nonsensical opinions from dixieboy and the West African Schizo-bipolar soupist betrays the world wide recruiting drive of reactionaries by Osama bint mt's MDC sleeper party, the proxy party of rhodie die-enders.
Committee on Foreign ideological and military attacks on the people of Zimbabwe in the City of African Backbone, HARARE.
Any time you have state suppression of news and news organizations, you have outright communism. Zimbabwe has become a Communist State....trained in the image of North Korea. Wonder what the body count is now from Cholera. You will never get a straight answer from state news.