Zimbabwe to Tighten Controls on Foreign Press, Says Official

Zimbabwe is set to review its media laws to tighten provisions allowing the sale of foreign publications in the country, APA learned on Monday.

President Robert Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, said the Zimbabwean government was looking at ways of putting controls that would help protect and defend the local media space.

“Government is looking at the whole regime that allows anyone to push their publication here without paying anything, or paying very little. Yet when sales are done, profits have to be turned into foreign currency which leaves the country,” said Charamba.

He said it was the duty of the Ministry of Information to protect and defend the national media space.

The move comes in the wake of an influx of foreign publications, particularly from South Africa, which has practically overshadowed the state-owned publications that are now shunned by many readers.

Another weekly, The Zimbabwean, which is published from London, has also stolen a sizable readership from the state-owned publications whose print run has also dwindled owing to the shortages of newsprint in the country.

Zimbabwe has one of the world’s toughest media laws which require journalists and media houses to register with a government-controlled commission.

Several publications have been closed down for failing to adhere to the law, while some Western news organisations have been banned from reporting in the country.

Source African Press Agency

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