Ladder: credential control, in Africa

A government decides who counts as a journalist through passes, accreditation or licences issued to individual reporters. Officials may refuse, suspend or revoke these credentials, or attach new conditions to them. Because many press areas admit only accredited reporters, control of credentials works as control of access.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

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1. Restrict
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3. Punish
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3Punish

Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.

ZWZimbabweRSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180

12 May 2005Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe's High Court ruled that Daily News journalists could not be accredited to work as reporters until their newspaper's publisher had itself been registered with the government's Media and Information Commission.

Note: Journalists at a named newspaper were denied the individual credential needed to work at all, conditioned on a separate corporate registration the government withheld for years.

Upheld by a court 12 May 2005 · 2 sources · Full entry

All ladders · Credential control: by country and year · The United States chapter