In the past decade, while Zimbabwe lurched from one political crisis to another and the economy went into freefall, the independent media were lambasted by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government for their often critical views, and subjected to increasingly repressive media laws.
In January 2009 the Media and Information Commission (MIC), which is staffed by members of ZANU-PF, began targeting the remaining pockets of independent media houses and journalists by instituting huge accreditation fees.