Speaking at a press conference held in Harare on 21 May 2009, Prime Minister Tsvangirai said the 2008 amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) did away with the statutory Media Information Commission (MIC), which was responsible for the accreditation and licensing of journalists and media houses. Section 38 of AIPPA makes provisions for the ZMC, which has not been constituted to date. Legally this means that there is no legal body that is responsible for the accreditation and registration of journalists and media houses.

Prime Minister Tsvangirayi said, however, that the Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders is working on setting up the new media commission in order to facilitate the opening up of airwaves. According to the law, the Commission shall have a Chairperson and eight other members appointed by the President from a list of not fewer than twelve nominees submitted by the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders

The pronouncement comes after Zimbabwe media editors and publishers wrote a letter to the Minister for Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu calling for the lifting of the remaining restrictions on journalists seeking to return home in line with the Global Political Agreement. In the letter, the editors and the publishers also appealed for a moratorium on the process of licensing of newspapers and lifting of high taxes on imported newspapers. The letter was signed by representatives of the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, The Worker, Community Newspapers Association in Zimbabwe, The Zimbabwean, the Zimbabwe Times and ZimOnline. 

Background

In January 2009, government gazetted steep application and registration fees that required foreign based media houses to fork out more than US$30 000 in application and operation fees.

The fees stated the local journalists working for foreign media organisations will pay US$ 1 000 and US$3 000 as individual application and accreditation fees respectively. Temporary accreditation for a foreign journalists were fixed at a total cost of US$1 500, contrasting sharply with the complimentary accreditation and administration fees for journalists from within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which is pegged at US$150 and US$200 respectively.

At the time journalists working for local organisations were to pay Z$1 million and Z$3 million in application and accreditation fees while local freelance journalists pay Z$1, 5 million as application fees. Late renewal of accreditation would be penalised at the rate of Z$100 000 per day while that for registration is pegged at Z$500 000.