The outcome of the first trial under Zimbabwe’s infamous new press-gag law is expected to be known on Monday when a Harare magistrate decides whether Andrew Meldrum, Harare correspondent for the London Guardian, is guilty of publishing ”falsehoods”.
After six days of evidence and argument, magistrate Godfrey Macheyo said on Friday he would deliver his verdict on Monday on whether the 50-year-old American journalist was guilty of ”abuse of journalistic privilege” under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Meldrum was arrested on May 1 and held for two days in a police cell after writing a report which quoted a local independent newspaper as saying that Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF militias had beheaded a suspected opposition supporter.
The story later turned out to be a lie, manufactured by a confidence trickster as a ruse to obtain cash from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for ”funeral expenses” for the allegedly murdered woman he claimed was his wife.
The Act imposes a maximum penalty of either two years in jail or a fine of 100 000 Zimbabwe dollars. State prosecutor Thabani Mpofu said earlier in the trial he would not be calling for Meldrum to go to jail if he was arrested, but was then denounced in the state press for his remark.
Beatrice Mtetwa, Meldrum’s lawyer, argued that he could not be convicted on a piece of paper which police claimed was taken from the Guardian’s internet site.
Earlier on Friday, electronic communications engineer Jim Holland showed the court how it was possible for police to manufacture a fraudulent copy of Meldrum’s report.
He produced a copy of the report purporting to be from the Guardian website, but bearing the name of public prosecutor Thabani Mpofu as the reporter. Mtetwa pointed out that police had not produced a copy of the Guardian where Meldrum’s report was published.
She also insisted that the law was unconstitutional and ”an absurd piece of legislation drafted by people who don’t know what they are doing”.
Mpofu told the magistrate that if he found Meldrum had published the false report, he would have to convict him. ”The court cannot acquit an accused person just because it thinks the law is absurd,” he said.
Meldrum is the first of 24 journalists to go to trial since the new law was passed on March 15, immediately after President Robert Mugabe was declared the winner of flawed presidential elections.
The Access to Information Act has been denounced internationally as a weapon for Mugabe’s regime to shut down the independent press in Zimbabwe and silence critical coverage of its record of human rights abuses, corruption, mismanagement and its abandonment of the rule of law.
Also on Friday, the government announced that all journalists and ”media institutions” operating in Zimbabwe would by October 31 have to submit their applications for ”registration” by a state-controlled commission that will wield sweeping powers over the press.
The new law, drafted by Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe’s information minister, would make it illegal for anyone to work in Zimbabwe as a journalist unless they were approved and accredited by the commission.
Media commission chairperson Tafataona Mahoso was quoted in the privately-owned weekly Zimbabwe Independent as saying that it would take 60 days to consider the applications before the final deadline of December 31 by when all journalists and media bodies have to be registered.
The commission can reject applications from journalists and newspapers, and revoke accreditation with no notice at any time.
Press freedom institutions say Zimbabwe is one of a handful of regimes around the world to enforce licensing systems for journalists. The government is charging up to $12 000, payable in hard currency, for a licence.
Earlier this year the International Committee to Protect Journalists listed Zimbabwe as among the 10 worst countries in which to work as a journalist. – Sapa