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Zim judge postpone journalist urgent application

  1. Posted on Thursday 4 June 2009 - 17:07
    bruce
    Bruce Sibanda, Harare, Zimbabwe
    A HIGH Court Judge in Zimbabwe, Judge Patel today afternoon postponed to Friday the case of four freelance journalist who filed and urgent chamber application challenging the legality of the Media Information Commission (MIC).
    He had to postpone after the defecne council indicated that they where served with papers a few hours before teh case was due t be heard.
    The four freelance journalist, Stanley Gama, Valentine Maponga, Stanley Kwenda and Jealous Mawarire filed an urgent chamber application on Wednesday with the High Court arguing that the MIC was abolished in January 2008 after amendment to the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).
    The journalist, though their lawyer Selby Hwacha say as a result the MIC was null and void and had no legal basis to require them to register with it to cover COMESA Summit in Victoria Falls from 7-9 June.
    Last week MIC announced that journalist wishing to cover the COMESA summit should register with it.
    It said journalist with “valid MIC accreditation cards “ and those from COMESA region would not pay while other journalist would fork out US$150.
    Hwacha said the case should be heard urgently as the COMESA summit was due to tae place.
    “Unless this Honourable Court intervenes urgently, applicants and the general public will suffer irreparable harm”, said Hwacha.
    Information Minister Webster Shamu, is the first respondent, George Charamba, the permanent secretary in the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, and Tafataona Mahoso are the second and third respondents respectively.
    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who recently said journalist and media house were not obliged to register is the forth respondent.

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