to represent the various platforms and forms of news media, including print, broadcast and online media. Both public and private media entities and practitioners will be within the structures of this mechanism. Suffice to say the media industry is unequivocal on media co-regulation as the way to go as engagements between policymakers, parliamentarians, and media representative organisations continue on this outstanding matter. MEDIA REGULATION DURING ELECTIONS The issue of dual accreditation, wherein media practitioners accredited with the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) are requested to be accredited again with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for purposes of covering the elections, remains of concern to MISA Zimbabwe. The ZMC-issued accreditation card should suffice for media practitioners in Zimbabwe, working for both 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, but rather as an administrative procedure. For instance, ZEC can only require that media practitioners applying to be accredited by the Commission should submit their details based on the ZMC-issued accreditation cards without having to pay an additional accreditation fee. Such details can then be verified with the ZMC before the accreditation card by ZEC is issued. This dual accreditation and the fees in question can be a deterrent for media practitioners to undertake their work without any fear of harassment, exclusion, arrest, and detention while covering elections. Dual accreditation should not be a deterrent for the media to play its role in information dissemination effectively. It is critical for the people of Zimbabwe to access election-related information to make informed decisions and choices. FINDINGS BY ELECTION OBSERVER MISSIONS TO THE 2018 ELECTIONS The African Union Observer Mission noted that despite the existence of legal provisions that encouraged equitable access to the media and balanced reporting of activities of political parties and candidates, both private and state-owned media houses exhibited a degree of polarisation, with inequitable coverage of political parties and candidates. ZIMBABWE 2023 ELECTIONS AND BEYOND: MEDIA REGULATION, JOURNALISM SAFETY AND SECURITY 7