The arrest of the editor and chief reporter of the Zimbabwe Independent on Tuesday, four days after Zimbabwe marked World Press Freedom Day, has ignited fears of the onset of a wider crackdown against journalists as the country heads towards a high-stakes election.
Dumisani Muleya and Owen Gagare were arrested for a report published in the Zimbabwe Independent last month that claimed that army generals had held secret talks with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a bid to curry favour with him should he defeat President Robert Mugabe in the coming elections.
In that report, Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) defence and security secretary Giles Mutsekwa, a retired major, confirmed that he had held talks with the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga; the Zimbabwe National Army's chief of staff, general staff, Major General Martin Chedondo, and chief of staff and quartermaster Major General Douglas Nyikayaramba. That story sparked a verbal attack by the military on the MDC and Gagare.
Gagare is a former intern in the Mail & Guardian's investigative unit, amaBhungane. He has previously reported for this paper on the shady deals in the Marange diamond fields.
Since the rise of the MDC as a challenger to Mugabe's rule, the military has publicly and persistently said it would neither recognise an election victory by Tsvangirai nor salute an individual who had no liberation war credentials.
The two journalists are being charged under Section 31A (3) of the Criminal Codification Act and are accused of "publishing false statements prejudicial to the state" and "undermining public confidence in the state".
If convicted, they would be liable to a fine, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 20 years, or both.
Trevor Ncube, the executive chairperson of the Zimbabwe Independent and the owner of the M&G, said the arrest of the journalists was a sign that "the silly season is upon us".
Muleya, after his release from Harare Central Police Station, said the pair's arrest was a clear abuse of the state machinery and an act of systematic harassment of journalists. He said that although there had been media reform under the unity government in the past four years, conditions for reporters remained largely restrictive. "In Zimbabwe, repression of the media tends to increase around elections and the 2013 election won't be an exception. This [arrest] is meant to intimidate the media. We should brace ourselves for more."
In 2011, Mugabe said the army could never be separated from Zanu-PF. "They are a force that has a history, a political history. We worked with them when they were still guerrillas."
The army's allegiance to Zanu-PF was born during the struggle and army chiefs have been rewarded with the choicest farms, retired and even serving officers head some of the country's biggest state enterprises and the army has significant diamond-mining concessions.