Zimbabwe to further tighten media laws

The head of Zimbabwe's media regulatory body wants to tighten press laws to control the distribution of what he calls subversive material of foreign origin. The state-controlled Herald newspaper quotes Media and Information Commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso as saying it is essential that both the publishers and the distributors should be regulated. Foreign publications distributed in Zimbabwe and which are often critical of President Robert Mugabe's government include weeklies such as South Africa's Mail and Guardian and the Sunday Times, as well as the Zimbabwean, which is published in Britain. At least four local papers had been closed down since 2002, and dozens of journalists - both local and foreign - were arrested.