Harare, February 17, 2012 -The European Union has removed 51 people and 20 business companies associated with Zanu (PF) which they had slapped with sanctions.

The western Bloc also removed travel bans on Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi who are negotiators in the Zimbabwe European Union re-engagement team, to allow them travel for that business.

The two remain on the sanctions list.

The 51 include eight state media journalists and deceased ZANU (PF) members who are no longer in influential positions.

“The remaining 112 individuals and 11 entities that are still considered to be involved or associated with policies and activities that undermine human rights, democracy and rule of law will remain subject to the measures, ”EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Aldo Dell'Ariccia announced the development to journalists in Harare Friday.

The EU Ambassador said the decision to remove journalists from the embargo was necessitated by an improvement in the news reportage.

“There is an improvement on the way news in the print media is being reported as compared to what prevailed before the formation of the GPA, although a lot more needs to be done on the electronic side, he said.

Last February the European Union (EU) extended the targeted sanctions on Zanu  (PF) party officials for another year and scrapped 35 of them from the list.

EU then said they found it difficult to lift the sanctions ban because of the continued discord in the inclusive government especially in the full implementation of the political pact.

The Mugabe administration was slapped with travel restrictions by the EU in 2002 after allegations of human rights abuses and lack of the rule of law, after a disputed violent Presidential election.

Brussels recently sent a delegation to Zimbabwe to assess progress in the areas of human rights, observation of the rule of law among others, encouraged by the formation of the Inclusive government, and have called for more reforms.