the Dynamos Football Club.
Upon his arrest, Chizuzu was taken to Harare Central Police Station’s Commercial Crimes Unit,
where the police recorded a warned and cautioned statement from him before being released. The
police also confiscated Chizuzu’s mobile phone and iPad, as part of the evidence.

These clawback provisions in new laws, such as the Cyber and Data Protection Act, take away the
progress that had been achieved through the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act in 2020
to give effect to the enjoyment of the right to access to information as provided for under Section
62 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the issue of dual accreditation by the Zimbabwe Media Commission, on one hand, and
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, on the other hand, remains of concern to MISA Zimbabwe as
a burdensome and inconvenient cost for journalists and media houses.
In the March 2022 by-elections run-up, ZEC invited applications from observers and the media for
accreditation to cover the elections.
The accreditation fees were set as follows:
•
Local observers- USD10,00 or ZWL equivalent at prevailing bank rate
•
Observers from the continent –USD20,00
•
Zimbabwean media practitioners accredited with the Zimbabwe Media Commission
and working in Zimbabwe for foreign media houses - USD50,00
•
Zimbabwean local media practitioners accredited with the Zimbabwe Media
Commission –USD10,00 or ZWL equivalent at prevailing bank rate.
The ZMC-issued accreditation card should suffice for media practitioners in Zimbabwe, working for
local and foreign media houses, to undertake their professional work on election reporting.
Should there be a need for a separate and ZEC-specific accreditation, that accreditation should be
processed without any requests for further payments.
This should be of serious consideration when viewed against the need for media sustainability, as
several media houses are struggling to stay afloat, not just in Zimbabwe but globally.
For instance, one of South Africa’s oldest football magazines, Kick-Off, announced that it was
shutting down after more than 28 years of publishing, leading to hundreds of people, that is,
journalists and support media workers, losing their jobs and remuneration.
This adds to thousands more that lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic which forced many
legacy media outlets to go online to cut costs.
This is also compounded by the economic situations in countries such as Zimbabwe where media
State of the Media Report    8

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