MEDIA ALERT

19 NOVEMBER 2002

ZIMBABWE UNION OF JOURNALISTS COURT APPLICATION DISMISSED

High Court Judge Justice Makoni has dismissed a Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) urgent High Court application intended to allow its
members to fill in accreditation forms without supplying certain information
about their lives.

Dismissing the matter as not urgent on Monday 18 November 2002, Justice
Makoni said that ZUJ had waited until the last minute to lodge their court
application yet the statutory instrument relating to journalists
accreditation was published in the government gazette in June 2002.
The judge pointed out that at that time The Daily News and The Sunday Mail
wrote about the contentious accreditation forms.

ZUJ is arguing that the forms which require journalists to supply the Media
and Information Commission with their residential addresses, mobile phone
numbers, passports and drivers numbers and E mail addresses is too intrusive
and violates their privacy. ZUJ was therefore seeking a provisional order
for the forms to be declared an invasion of their privacy.

The Judge said that ZUJ can still file its court challenge but it will not
be heard as an urgent matter. ZUJ was also seeking that the matter be heard
as an urgent matter because the accreditation deadline is 21 November 2002.

END

Rashweat Mukundu
Research and Information Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
221 Fife Ave
Box HR 8113
Harare
Zimbabwe

Phone: 00 263 4 721 841, 735 441-2
Cell : 00 263 4 011 602 685
E mail: [email protected] [2]