Harare - Journalists in Zimbabwe on Sunday criticized recent "astronomical" accreditation fees by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Petitioning the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) and South African President Kgalema Motlanthe to intervene, the Media Institute of Southern Africa Zimbabwe (MISA) called in a letter released Sunday for "a reversal of such astronomical fees."

Last week, a government-run media commission imposed a fee of 4,000 US dollars on local journalists working for the foreign media in Zimbabwe in 2009.

Foreign media houses pay 10,000 dollars for the application and 20,000 for accreditation, payable only in foreign currency, with an administration fee of 2,000 dollars.

Foreign journalists intending to work temporarily in Zimbabwe are required to pay 500 dollars for an application and 1,000 dollars for accreditation.

Under Zimbabwe's harsh media legislation, journalists can be arrested for practising without accreditation.

"The increase is indicative of the contempt the government feels towards the press in general, and the international media in particular, and its desire to engineer a news blackout about political, economic and public health developments in Zimbabwe," said a statement from press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders
(RSF). dpa