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HARARE: Zimbabwe plans to closely screen foreign media intending to cover upcoming elections amid suspicions uninvited observers and security personnel might impersonate Western journalists, state media reported on Sunday.
Accreditation of some 300 foreign reporters who applied to cover the country's March 29 general elections will be closely supervised, as the government was aware of "the machinations to turn journalists into observers", George Charmba, information secretary, told the state-run Sunday Mail.
In particular, he said, the government feared "uninvited observers and security personnel from the Western countries", might be applying to cover the vote as reporters, the weekly quoted Charamba as saying.
Preference would be given to reporters from Africa and the "national identity of the news organisations will be a major determinant", he added.
Besides Africa, journalists who have applied to cover the event hail from Europe and North America and Asia.
"The issue of media accreditation is as much an information issue as it is a foreign policy and policy issue," Charamba said, adding that teams from the government's foreign affairs, information and security branches would scrutinise each application and work closely with Zimbabwe's electoral commission.
Zimbabwe has invited the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and 46 other teams of monitors from regional groups such as the African Union to monitor the vote, along with several countries including China, Russia and Iran with whom President Robert Mugabe enjoys relatively good relations.
But European Union member states and the United States – which both accused Mugabe of rigging his re-election in 2002 – have not been invited to monitor the voting, the government said.
"We are mindful of attempts to turn journalists into observers, or to smuggle in uninvited observers and security personnel from hostile countries under the cover of media or think-tanks.
"We are also aware of journalists from Western countries who have sneaked into the country, for example one from the British Guardian newspaper, and our security personnel are on the spoor," he said.
Charamba said any news organisation which chooses to "sneak in" are jeopardising their applications and "are exposing their personnel to arrest".
He said preference in terms of accreditation will be given to media organisations that were already accredited to work in the country, but those being deployed from outside should work strictly under the leadership of bureau chiefs stationed in the country.
International organisations already working in Zimbabwe include AFP, AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera and South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Charamba said most of the crews that are set to be deployed are coming from Baghdad, while a number are coming from Kenya which recently suffered post- election violence.
"It is as if Zimbabwe is a war about to start. There is a strategy to use images to galvanise international opinion," he said
"There is an expectation of blood in streets, which explains the deployment of war correspondents and cameramen."
Following the passing of the media law in 2002, several foreign correspondents have been thrown out of the country and journalists from the independent press arrested and detained.
A jail sentence of up to two years is imposed to any journalist operating in Zimbabwe without accreditation.
- AFP/so
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