The United States denounced the impending trial in
Zimbabwe of US journalist Andrew Meldrum on Tuesday, calling the case against him evidence of the government’s continued harassment and intimidation of the press.
”We deplore the use of new draconian laws to restrict freedom of the press in Zimbabwe,” State Department representative Richard Boucher said, adding that harassment of journalists in the country had
continued unabetted since heavily criticised presidential elections in March.
”The United States condemns the government of Zimbabwe’s continuing harassment of the free press and calls upon it to cease all such action,” he said.
Asked if he was suggesting that Meldrum, an American reporter working for Britain’s The Guardian newspaper who goes on trial Wednesday for allegedly publishing falsehoods in Harare, was the victim of such harassment, Boucher replied that he was.
”I am suggesting that he is the victim of the use of draconian laws to harass and intimidate the press, yes,” he said.
”We’re following the matter very closely,” he said, adding that representatives from the US embassy in Harare planned to attend the trial.
Meldrum and Lloyd Mudiwa of the Daily News, an independent Zimbabwean newspaper, face charges under a stringent new press law over the story – since proved false – that a woman had been beheaded in front of her children by ruling party militia.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change initially had confirmed the story, but later the man claiming to be the dead woman’s husband was found to have fabricated the incident.
Both publications have printed corrections.
Mudiwa was arrested on April 30 along with another journalist from the Daily News, but the court later tossed out charges against his colleague.
Meldrum was arrested May 1, and all three were freed on bond the following day.
The two were charged under a section of the law that
criminalised abuse of ”journalistic privilege.” Foreign correspondents in Zimbabwe have filed a court challenge to that section of the law.
The press law, enacted just days after President Robert Mugabe’s controversial re-election, imposed stiff limits on independent and foreign press in Zimbabwe.
Since the media law took effect March 15, 11 journalists have been arrested – some more than once -and nine face prosecution on one or more charges.
If convicted, the two journalists could face up to two years in prison or a fine of 100 000 Zimbabwe dollars. – Sapa-AFP