THE government is planning to block public access to state information like court judgments, legislation, official notices and public registers, a press freedom watchdog warned on Monday.

The proposed legislation, drafted by President Robert Mugabe's wing of the country's coalition government, would worsen an already heavily restricted media environment, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) warned.

Clauses in the General Laws Amendment Bill published last month are a blatant attempt to gag the media from reporting on important government actions that are currently free from restriction, the MMPZ said in a bulletin.

The MMPZ said the bill would enforce copyright on all government documents, which could be published only with government approval.

If a human rights organisation wanted to publish details of a court ruling that affected the rights of citizens, it would have to get permission from the justice minister, the project warned.

Details of new electoral laws could also only be published by the media with state approval and official registers, like voters rolls, could also be made secret.

The MMPZ said: "Zimbabweans’ rights to access and disseminate information are already severely curtailed by provisions contained in the repressive Access to information and Protection of Privacy Act. But this latest attempt to deprive the public of access to important decisions regarding news about court rulings and the making of new laws, among other issues, is a blatant attempt to condemn Zimbabweans to ignorance and the acceptance of an authoritarian culture of rule-by-decree.

"Such an attempt to gag the media from reporting on important government activity that should be freely accessible to the public also offends against the best practice of most SADC nations – let alone most other democracies – and must be struck down when it is presented to Parliament for MPs’ consideration."

Significant reforms were made to media laws in Zimbabwe last year, resulting in the launch of the country's first independent daily newspaper in eight years, but journalists still suffer regular harassment.

Last week, Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said no new radio or television stations would be given licences to operate because the country lacks the technology to monitor them, in violation of an undertaking in the power-sharing agreement signed by Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara in September 2008.