A Zimbabwe court granted bail on Friday to an editor and journalist from an independent weekly newspaper, who face charges of defaming the police.
Nevanji Madanhire, editor of the Standard independent weekly, and reporter Patience Nyangove were arrested on Wednesday after they published a story about a minister being detained. They are accused of defaming police after an article in the paper quoted people fearing for the safety of a government minister in police custody.
Nyangove was released on Wednesday and Madanhire was freed late on Thursday, but they were ordered to appear in court early Friday for their official bail release hearing, said defence attorney Linda Cook.
Police had arrested Minister of State Jameson Timba last week and refused to reveal his whereabouts.
Sticks and stones
Timba was detained after he allegedly called longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe a liar. Insulting Mugabe is a criminal offence under Zimbabwe’s sweeping security laws.
Magistrate Shane Kubonera granted Madanhire $100 bail and Nyangove free bail. Cook said charges facing the two were “frivolous”. They also faced a second charge of publishing false information that put state security at risk and undermined the authority of police and security forces.
Independent media groups say the arrests are part of a fresh clampdown on Mugabe’s critics that have included demands by influential hardliners in Mugabe’s party for surveillance and controls on independent media organisations.
The Voluntary Media Council warned of a return to media repression surrounding violent and disputed elections in 2008 that led to the formation of a troubled coalition government.
Mugabe has called for early elections to end the coalition with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Fahrenheit 451
His election calls have seen a surge in political violence this year and attacks by militants on journalists and newspaper vendors on the streets, with independent papers like the Standard being torched and torn up.
Later Friday, the Harare High Court released on bail 12 activists from Tsvangirai’s party who were arrested in May on charges related to the killing of a police inspector in a western Harare township.
In all, 24 people were arrested on murder allegations that they were in a mob that attacked the police officer. Eight were denied bail on Friday and four others also remain in jail.
Tsvangirai’s party denies the involvement of its activists in the killing, saying the officer died in a bar brawl not related to party affiliation.
At an earlier arraignment, most of the murder suspects reported being assaulted by police in jail and showed welts, cuts, body bruises and swollen faces. — Sapa-AP