(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, RSF protested the suspension of accreditation for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalists. RSF asked the minister to repeal the measure and allow foreign correspondents to work freely throughout Zimbabwe. “The authorities try to control information inside and outside the country by any means,” said Robert […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, RSF protested the suspension of accreditation for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalists. RSF asked the minister to repeal the measure and allow foreign correspondents to work freely throughout Zimbabwe. “The authorities try to control information inside and outside the country by any means,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “The press freedom situation keeps getting worse in this country. Everything is being done to muzzle the press ahead of the 2002 presidential elections,” he added.
According to information collected by RSF, on 25 July 2001, the government decided to no longer grant accreditation to BBC journalists who want to come to Zimbabwe. The decision follows a report from Rageh Omaar, a BBC World special reporter, relating to a speech by President Robert Mugabe during the opening session of parliament on 24 July. According to the journalist, the president promised to continue with the forcible acquisition of white farmland. According to the authorities, the president talked about “lawful acquisition” and not about “forcible acquisition.” Moyo then suspended the accreditation of BBC correspondents until further notice and “pending agreement, if at all possible, on an ethical and professional code of conduct.” In a letter to Milton Nkosi, the BBC News bureau chief in South Africa, he declared that it is time for the BBC to apply the same rules it applies in the United Kingdom.
Since June, foreign journalists are required to apply for accreditation from the Information Department at least one month before their entry into the country. The foreign journalists can make their travel arrangements only when they have “clear indication from the department on the accreditation status of applicants.” Foreign correspondents had been advised to leave the country and reapply for accreditation from their country of origin.
Currently, the only BBC employee in Zimbabwe is an assistant, since the expulsion in February of Joseph Winter, BBC correspondent in Harare. Mercedes Sayagues, correspondent for the South African daily “Mail and Guardian”, was also deported by immigration officers because the information minister had changed the accreditation rules for foreign journalists (see IFEX alerts of 19 July, 15 June, 2 March, 26, 21, 19, 16 and 15 February 2001).
Foreign news organisations in the country include Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, “The Guardian”, “The Financial Times”, several South African newspapers, the BBC, CNN and several European newspapers and news agencies.
