Zimbabwe reporters need licences

ZIMBABWE’S highest court threw out a constitutional challenge to the country’s sweeping media laws yesterday, making it now a criminal offence to work as a journalist without a licence.

The ruling immediately put the only independent daily newspaper, which is not licensed, at risk of being shut and having journalists working on today’s edition arrested.

The Supreme Court ruling put journalists under the direct control of the government with a penalty of up to two years in jail for infringements of laws enforced by the Information Ministry and the state-appointed media commission, said attorney Sternford Moyo, representing the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe.