The Media and Information Commission (MIC) finally registered journalists at the Zimbabwe Independent on January 31 after refusing to accredit them recently.
The commission, created through the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), took issue with a story the newspaper ran last year and over a misunderstanding about the paper’s shareholding.
The Zimbabwe Independent reported last year that Jonathan Maphenduka had resigned from the commission after falling out with its head, Tafataona Mahoso. In his resignation letter, sent to the Ministry of Information, he accused the MIC of being unprofessional and undemocratic.
In another incident this week, police detained four University of Zimbabwe students after mistaking them for journalists. The four were researching the consequences of the government’s clean-up campaign at Hopley Farm, a holding camp for victims of Operation Murambatsvina. They were released after the Zimbabwe chapter of Lawyers for Human Rights convinced the police that the four were students and not unaccredited journalists.