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South Africa's commercial broadcaster e.tv has been banned from covering Zimbabwe's general election Saturday. E.tv was not accredited by the Zimbabwean government because it breached media and security laws while reporting on diamond smuggling last year, said secretary for information George Charamba.

The station's Zimbabwe-born reporter was fined by a court at the time for operating without authorization.

Charamba said the government was closely screening foreign media ahead of the elections amid suspicions that uninvited observers might impersonate Western reporters.

Since the media law was passed in 2002, several foreign correspondents have been thrown out of the country and journalists from the independent press arrested and detained. A jail sentence of up to two years is imposed on any journalist operating in Zimbabwe without accreditation.

Previously elections have been criticized for not being free and fair by opposition parties and international observers. President Robert Mugabe, 84, has been in power since 1980 and has said he has no plans to end his rule.