Zimbabwe's parliament prepared today to pass a new media law banning foreign journalists and restricting local reporters.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill comes amid mounting political violence ahead of presidential polls due on March 9th-10th.
The law, along with the Public Order and Security Bill which gives police broad powers to punish those who criticise the government, is seen as the culmination of a series of measures to clamp down on the independent press.
The proposed legislation would force journalists and newspaper publishers to obtain a one-year renewable license from the government and would bar reporters from quoting newspapers without their permission.
The media curbs come against a backdrop of simmering violence against the opposition, threatened military intervention in the presidential election, food shortages and an economic meltdown.
Today, the independent Daily Newsreported that an opposition legislator was abducted, knifed and left for dead by suspected ruling party supporters.
The white-led Commercial Farmers' Union also reported that a farmer had been beaten up by settlers in Nyanga, eastern Zimbabwe, while threats and intimidation were continuing countrywide.
President Robert Mugabe, who has pinned his electoral hopes on redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks, has come under increasing scrutiny for allowing ruling party militants to violently seize land for black squatters.
More than 60 people have died and thousands have been tortured in politically-linked violence, according to local human rights groups. Amnesty International listed up to 10 people who had been reportedly killed in violence by state-sponsored militias in the past few weeks.
Mr Mugabe faces the threat of sanctions from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the United States over the crisis.
AFP