BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA THE Attorney General is yet to gazette the 2022 media accreditation fees despite receiving the Statutory Instrument from the Information ministry in November last year.
The gazette will enable media practitioners to obtain accreditation cards for the year. Journalists are currently using expired 2021 accreditation cards.
On January 25, 2022 MISA-Zimbabwe chairperson Golden Maunganidze wrote to the clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda demanding Parliament to compel the Ministry expedite the gazetting of the accreditation fees.
In his response, Chokuda in a letter dated March 29, 2022, said the Attorney General was yet to gazette the fees.
“The committee would like to inform you that the Ministry has indicated it submitted the Statutory Instrument on media accreditation fees to the Attorney General’s office for examination and gazetting on November 23, 2022,” Chokuda said.
“Follow ups were made with the office and indications were that they were still working on the Statutory Instrument. The committee is eagerly waiting for the fees to be gazetted and it will continue to engage the ministry on the matter.”
In an interview with NewsDay, Maunganidze told NewsDay that the delay in issuing out accreditation was resulting in practitioners being barred from covering some events.
“We are demanding that government deal with the issuance of accreditation cards with urgency.
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“Journalists should be able to obtain accreditation as soon as they expire,” Maunganidze said.
“This will enhance them to freely conduct their duties without hindrance or possibilities that they will be barred from covering some events.. Journalists who started practising in January this year are not being able to cover some event without accreditation which is a huge blow to dissemination and access to information.”
