Government suspends BBC press accreditation

The Zimbabwean government has suspended all press accreditation for the BBC, accusing its correspondents of “deliberate unethical and unprofessional conduct”, the state-controlled ‘Herald’ newspaper reported on Thursday quoting information minister Jonathan Moyo.

The newspaper said the move followed criticism of President Robert Mugabe in the BBC coverage of his speech at the opening of parliament on Tuesday. Moyo denied the BBC’s report that Mugabe “vowed to continue with the forcible acquisition of white farmland,” the paper said. “It is apparent that, as has happened before, the BBC approached the President’s speech with a preconceived view to distorting it, to give a false impression that there is no law and order in Zimbabwe,” Moyo was quoted saying.

BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar left Harare for Britain late on Tuesday and his two-man television crew returned on Wednesday to neighbouring South Africa. Milton Nkosi, BBC’s Johannesburg bureau chief told IRIN on Thursday: “The BBC is disappointed with the decision. We will certainly be meeting with the Zimbabwean government. We stand by Rageh Omaar’s report.”

Meanwhile, the ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday that journalists and editors from the country’s independent media had “blasted” the government over the formation of a committee tasked with probing journalism standards and ethics. The government announced on Monday it had formed a committee to look into the professionalism of the local media.
Harare Polytechnic media studies lecturer Tafataona Mahoso chairs the panel, which has excluded even a single representative from the independent media. “There has been an obvious lack of credibility from the onset when so many of the members of this committee are apologists of the ruling party,” Iden Wetherell, editor of the ‘Zimbabwe Independent’ was quoted saying.