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Parliamentarians last week called for a once off media accreditation of journalists who cover Parliamentary proceedings.
Speaking during the Parliamentary question and answer session, Dzivarasekwa legislator Edwin Mushoriwa highlighted that Parliament must consider the Zimbabwe Media Commission(ZMC) accreditation cards as the only accreditation that allow journalists to cover all proceedings of the august House.
This came up after Mushoriwa emphasised that journalists go for further accreditation in order to cover Parliament proceedings despite being accredited by the ZMC.
“My point of national interest is in respect to the work that the media does in terms of covering the proceedings of this august House. Mr. Speaker Sir, media personnel are accredited by the Zimbabwe Media Commission. Unfortunately, for them to cover proceedings here, they also need again to go for further accreditation by Parliament.
“To make matters worse, if there is a function hosted by Parliament, they are further required to register to cover that particular function and this registration of journalists to cover proceedings at Parliament, I think is actually tiresome. If you look at it, at other functions like State House functions, all they simply need to do is to go with their Zimbabwe Media Commission accreditation cards.
“I want to appeal to you Mr. Speaker Sir to make it easier for the media personnel to cover proceedings purely based on the accreditation done by the Zimbabwe Media Commission, which I think is fully equipped and qualified to do that job,” said Mushoriwa.
Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda also added that, “I have checked with the Clerk of Parliament, from the Hon. Member’s statement, it would appear the accreditation is done continuously each time the media practitioner attends Parliament here and it is not the case. Once they come here, they are given a tag indicating they are the press and that allows them to go to the Press Gallery and that is for security reasons.
“Secondly, once they have that tag, they do not have to get another one each time they come here so as a measure of security and follow up and in case they write stories that do not reflect what transpired here in the House or in Parliament in general, it is easier to follow the reporter and question them as to why they have those distortions when in fact the Hansard is recording something totally different. Those are the checks and balances but otherwise each time they come, they are not supposed to be accredited.”
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