Mozambique – Mozambique has implemented new rates for the registration and accreditation of local and foreign journalists in the country, immediately denounced as exorbitant by the defenders of freedom of the press. Quietly adopted in cabinet last month for the official purpose of better regulating the media market, the new government decree came into effect on Wednesday.
Under the new grid, it now costs the equivalent of 1,500 euros to a foreign journalist to report in Mozambique and up to 7,500 euros per year if he wants to settle as a correspondent of a media foreign. This sudden increase hits the local media just as much. The tax required by the authorities to record a television channel has risen to 45,000 euros.
Influential members of the Mozambican media community including Media Institute of Southern Africa, MISAMozambique requested support to have Mozambique’s constitutional council review the decree’s constitutionality and legality. These measures are adopted on less than two months away from the next municipal election scheduled for October 10.
by Nyasha K Mutizwa
AFP
