An editor and a reporter from Zimbabwe’s Sunday independent newspaper, The Standard, have been summoned by the police and questioned over pictures of prostitutes they published two weeks ago, the editor said on Wednesday.
Bornwell Chakaodza and reporter Farayi Kanyuchi were on Tuesday charged under the country’s censorship laws after their paper published revealing pictures of prostitutes.
The photos illustrated a story in which it was alleged that police officers were having sex with prostitutes instead of arresting them.
Chakaodza said that police “phoned for us to appear at the police station for publishing obscene photographs.” The two men were freed hours later.
This is the second time Chakaodza and Kanyuchi have been questioned over the same story in less than a week.
Last Thursday, the two were arrested and spent a night in jail over the story.
They were charged on that occasion with abuse of journalistic privilege under a tough new media law enacted by President Robert Mugabe just days after his controversial re-election in early March.
The journalists have denied last week’s and Tuesday’s charges. At least a dozen journalists have been arrested or re-arrested in Zimbabwe since the country’s new media law was enacted. – AFP