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Midlands Bureau Chief
GOVERNMENT has listed journalists among providers of essential services allowed to work during the lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19.

Journalists join health workers and security forces, among other sectors, that are permitted to work during this time.

On Sunday, President Mnangagwa extended the national lockdown to May 3 as part of measures to fight the spread of Covid-19. The initial 21-day lockdown, which started on March 30, expired at midnight on Sunday.

Following the extension of the lockdown, Government on Sunday published Statutory Instrument 93 of 2020 listing journalism as an essential service.

The Statutory Instrument came into effect before High Court judge Justice Jacob Manzunzu on Monday ordered the police and other law enforcement agencies charged with enforcing the COVID-19 lockdown not to arrest, detain or interfere “in any unnecessary way” with the work of journalists.

Media Institute of Southern Africa had filed an urgent chamber application against alleged arrests and harassment of journalists by police officers during the lockdown.

The Statutory Instrument reads: “This order may be cited as the Public Health (Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) (Amendment) Order, 2020 (No. 3).

“2. The Public Health (Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order, 2020, published in Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020 (hereinafter called “the principal order”), is amended in section 2 (“Interpretation”) — (a) in the definition of “essential service” by the repeal of paragraph (j) and the substitution of — “(j) communications and telecommunication services, including the Internet, any public or licensed broadcasting service, and the activities of persons as journalists, newspaper vendors or employees of such services.”

Before the SI, members of the media had been allowed to carry on with their jobs upon the production of a Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) accreditation card, but there were reported incidents of journalists allegedly being harassed by security forces deployed to enforce the lockdown.

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) commended Government for the SI 93, saying journalists, print or broadcast, all had the same role of informing the nation on Covid-19 developments.

ZUJ secretary general Foster Dongozi urged media companies, NGOs, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the corporate sector to recognise the development by providing or donating protective clothing to journalists covering Covid-19 to ensure that they did not contract or spread the virus while on duty.

“As ZUJ, we welcome this development by Government in recognising us as an essential service,” he said.

“There is, therefore, the need now to prioritise the health and safety of journalists by the Government, WHO, corporate world and employers by providing them with PPE so that they conduct their job of information dissemination while protected or protecting the people they are covering.”

Dongozi urged the security forces to work well with journalists in the fight against Covid-19.