Journalists in court to make media commission order legally binding

By Violet Gonda
3 July 2009

The freelance journalists who were barred from covering the COMESA summit recently, have made an application in the High Court to make a court decision legally binding. High Court Justice Bharat Patel ruled in June that the Media and Information Commission (MIC), led by Tafataona Mahoso, was now a defunct body and no journalist should be required to register with it.

Despite winning the interim order, journalists Jealous Mawarire, Stanley Gama, Stanley Kwenda and Valentine Maponga were still barred from covering the COMESA summit, because they were not accredited by the controversial regulatory body.

Mawarire said since the interim order was granted there were indications that Minister of Information Webster Shamu and his Permanent Secretary George Charamba, were going to oppose the interim order. But said the government officials appealed after 15 days, which was outside the limit of 10 days for an appeal.

The journalists now want the High Court to give a final order that is legally binding as Shamu and Charamba are still behaving in an ‘ambiguous way.’

The freelance journalist said so far ‘nothing that has changed,’ despite the High Court order stipulating that journalists can work without accreditation.
“The MIC was declared legally dead but it has been reincarnated. It has been resurrected by the Minister and the Permanent Secretary and the ghost is hounding us journalists,” said Mawarire.