<B>ZIMONLINE

Mugabe killing off new remaining media, says watchdog</B>

Scheming by Zimbabwe?s feared spy agency and the government-controlled Media and Information Commission is killing off the few remaining independent media, an international press freedom watchdog said this week. Reporters Without Borders said the effects of the infiltration of the privately-owned media by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) are beginning to manifest themselves in Zimbabwe?s media and have had a disastrous impact on pluralism in the country. «Unable to live with a free Press, casting suspicion on the publications they manipulate and paying little heed to the journalists they employ, the intelligence agencies have just helped to undermine the already moribund Press even further,» said the Paris-based watchdog in a statement. The Reporters Without Borders statement comes against the backdrop of last week?s suspension pending dismissal of Financial Gazette editor Sunsleey Chamunorwa and the collapse early this month of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror. Chamunorwa was suspended on 12 March ostensibly at the instructions of the CIO which had allegedly been uncomfortable about his editorial stance that it viewed as anti-government. It is alleged that pressure had been building on Chamunorwa to change his editorial policy, with reports that the editor was once visited by CIO agents in 2005 over the issue.

<B>Reuters south africa

Seychelles parliament dissolved, election due</B>

Seychelles President James Michel dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for new elections after months of opposition boycotts of the assembly.

Michel announced the move, which he hopes will deliver him a bigger parliamentary majority, in a state of the nation address ? his first since he was re-elected in presidential polls in the Indian Ocean archipelago eight months ago.

«In accordance with the notice published today in the official gazette, the national assembly has been dissolved,» Michel told parliament. «I cannot have members of assembly who come and go out at will, and for the country to advance quickly, voters should give me a strong majority in the assembly so that this country can see rapid development,» he added.

Under Seychellois law, parliamentary elections must be held within 90 days of the assembly being dissolved. Seychelles? last parliamentary election was held in December 2002.There are 33 seats in the nation?s parliament which serves the islands? 81,000 people. Eleven of them are held by opposition MPs with the rest taken by Michel?s Seychelles People?s Progressive Front party.

Analysts say Michel, re-elected on a platform of economic reforms, has grown increasingly impatient since opposition MPs started boycotting assembly sessions in October to protest a parliamentary vote that denied them a radio station licence. Opposition leader Wavel Ramkalawan criticised Michel?s move. «It?s a very cowardly act,» he told Reuters.