Zimbabwe insulting the President. This includes statements likely to engender feelings of hostility towards the President, cause “hatred, contempt or ridicule” of the President, or any “abusive, indecent, obscene or false statement” about his person or his office. The offence attracts imprisonment for up to one year. SCORES: Individual scores: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4 Average score: 1.3 1.4 Entry into and practice of the journalistic profession is legally unrestricted. ANALYSIS: AIPPA has established a Media and Information Commission, appointed by the Minister of Information and Publicity in the President’s Office. This Act obliges media houses to be registered, and journalists to be accredited with the Commission. Section 83 states that “no person other than an accredited journalist shall practise as a journalist nor be employed as such or in any manner holding himself out as or pretend to be a journalist”. A media house that employs journalists who are not accredited or have been struck off the roll, can be de-registered. Section 80 determines: “A journalist shall be deemed to have abused his journalist’s privilege and committed an offence if he falsifies or fabricates information”. It is the Media and Information Commission which determines whether a piece of information is “false” or “fabricated”. SCORES: 8 Individual scores: 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 Average score: 1.4 African Media Barometer - Zimbabwe 2006