ANDREW Meldrum, a correspondent for London’s Guardian newspaper, was arrested on Wednesday morning under President Robert Mugabe’s new press-gag law, members of his family said in Harare.
Police arrived at 50-year-old Meldrum’s home at 7.40am and took him to Harare central police station, a relative said.
He was with his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.
He was arrested under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act for allegedly abusing journalistic privilege and publishing falsehoods.
It was not immediately clear what, if any, of his reports the charge referred to.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail or a fine of 100 000 Zimbabwean dollars.
Meldrum, an American citizen, arrived in Zimbabwe shortly after independence in 1980 and holds permanent residence.
Two local journalists, Lloyd Mudiwa and Collin Chiwanza of the Daily News, the country’s only independent daily newspaper, are still in custody after being arrested on Tuesday morning under the same law.
Their detention was over a report by Mudiwa last week that quoted an elderly farmer from a remote tribal area in northern Zimbabwe as saying that a mob of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party youths had beheaded his wife.
The Daily News later reported that they had been hoodwinked by the elderly husband.
The new press act became law on March 15, and since then seven journalists have been arrested and subsequently released. Among them are Geoff Nyarota, the Daily News editor, Iden Wetherell, editor of the privately owned weekly Zimbabwe Independent, and Peta Thornycroft, correspondent for London’s Daily Telegraph.
In the last two years, the country’s independent media has suffered constant state harassment. The Daily News has twice come under bomb attack, the first in 2000 when a small explosive device went off at its offices in central Harare.
In January last year its printing presses were destroyed in a massive blast.
The government has also clamped down on visits by foreign correspondents and most have to enter the country as tourists to be able to report. – Sapa-AFP