Al Jazeera to get unrivaled access to Zimbabwe
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 Al Jazeera International will be the first global broadcaster to have a permanent presence in Zimbabwe in over five years. The Harare bureau, headed by veteran journalist Farai Sevenzo, is one of many that the news channel, due to start broadcasting in November, has opened across the continent.
International press organizations trying to operate in Zimbabwe have been shut out by the “Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act,” passed in 2002. The Act requires journalists to be registered with the Ministry of Information, and has been used to prosecute many local journalists, as well as Andrew Meldrum, a correspondent for The Guardian newspaper. Meldrum won his case, but was still deported.
Sevenzo, a Zimbabwean, is no soft touch. In a documentary aired on BBC Two in 2004, he used a hidden camera to document famine and official bans on moving food around the country.
Asked how they would deal with Zimbabwe’s government, an AJI representative said, “We have no hidden agenda and will report accurately.”
In addition to Zimbabwe, AJI opened bureaus in Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and South Africa and will share resources with the Arabic channel’s bureaus in Chad, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.
Al Jazeera Morocco Bound
Al Jazeera will start broadcasting daily news bulletins from its Rabat office in Morocco in November, according to the pan-Arab daily, Al Hayat. The move is part of the Arabic channel’s strategy to attract a wider audience in the Maghreb region.
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