THE High Court has granted a relief order sought by the Zimbabwe Online Content Creators Trust (ZOCC) to stop accreditation of journalists by the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) in a manner that threatens their rights as media practitioners.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
ZOCC is an organisation which represents practitioners who work in the field of online content that include journalists, bloggers, vloggers, social media practitioners, online editors and content creating media houses and were represented by Chris Mhike.
High Court judge Justice Happius Zhou ordered that ZMC must suspend accreditation of journalists until after consultations with the relevant stakeholders.
ZOCC had challenged the accreditation process currently going on, which process they alleged was being carried out in a manner that undermined the freedom of the media.
The organisation submitted that another media organisation, Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe tried to seek recourse with ZMC, but the negotiation was not assisting in any way as the ZMC was continuing with the retrogressive accreditation process.
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They had submitted that a court order would help in stopping the retrogressive accreditation of journalists.
The organisation said it was worried that if the ZMC was allowed to continue using their categorised process, most of their members would be significantly prejudiced.