Harare | Saturday
A LAWYER was seeking a High Court order on Saturday to free jailed journalist Peta Thornycroft who has been accused of violating Zimbabwe’s new press law.
Thornycroft, a Zimbabwean citizen with a South African residence permit, is a correspondent for a number of publications, including the Johannesburg-based Mail & Guardian (M&G), Britain’s Daily Telegraph and Business Day.
“We want her to be released because she hasn’t committed an offence,” said Tendai Biti, a constitutional lawyer, who is also a lawmaker for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
“The constitution says no one can be held unless they are believed to have committed an offence,” he said.
“It is clear that these are the machinations of a regime that has gone mad,” he said.
“The problem is it’s Easter weekend, the logistics are very difficult,” Biti said.
After Biti waited an hour at the court in an attempt to find a judge, he said court officials told him that he would have to try again on Sunday.
The case will challenge the constitutionality of a clause requiring accreditation for journalists and ask that Thornycroft be freed pending a full hearing of the challenge, Biti said.
Thornycroft (57) is being charged under a section of a press law enacted two weeks ago which makes it a crime to practice journalism without accreditation and valid qualifications, Biti said.
She was arrested on Wednesday in the eastern border town of Chimanimani and told she had been charged with “publishing false statements likely to be prejudicial to state security” and “incitement to public violence” under the country’s new security laws.
The charges carry a possible five-year jail term.
She also has been charged with possessing a car with an incorrect number plate, which carries a small fine.
A colleague, David Blair, who was expelled from Zimbabwe in June while working for The Telegraph, said he had spoken to Thornycroft and that “she is in reasonably good spirits.”
“She is being treated quite decently and humanely and is being allowed unrestricted access to her lawyer,” Blair said.
Thornycroft renounced her British nationality last year and is a Zimbabwean citizen.
The charge of working illegally as a journalist is punishable by two years in jail, but Blair said “it’s manifestly ridiculous, so any court would throw it out.”
“We’re quite encouraged by this development because the charges have nothing to do with the (new) Public Order Security Act (POSA). Her lawyer is confident she will be free in a matter of days,” he said.
POSA, passed in January in the run-up to March’s hotly contested presidential elections, has been condemned by rights groups and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as repressive.
The act outlawed criticism of President Robert Mugabe and required police permission for public gatherings and gave authorities sweeping powers to detain people without trial. In South Africa on Saturday, The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) condemned Thornycroft’s detention without trial.
MISA (SA) in a statement demanded the immediate release of Thornycroft stating that: “Her detention shows that the imprisonment is a punitive action against a journalist who has been a consistent and accurate reporter of the evils of the Mugabe government and its militant supporters.”
M&G editor Howard Barrell pledged to support Thornycroft.
“Peta is a journalist of immense energy and integrity. This makes her precisely the kind of journalist dictators most fear,” he said.
The Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) of Southern Africa also condemned the arrest.
“We call for Thornycroft’s immediate release without harm or further harassment,” FCA chairman Kurt Shillinger said in a statement.
“Infringements of media freedoms are unacceptable. As Zimbabwe’s crisis deepens, however, we fear that more is at stake even the lives and well-being of our colleagues.”
The Cape Town Press Club also condemned the arrest, and urged the South African government to act on her behalf.
“The Cape Town Press Club condemns the arrest and detention of journalist Peta Thornycroft in Zimbabwe on what appear (to be) trumped up charges.”
The Johannesburg Press Club said it was typical for an embattled administration such as Mugabe’s that his police would act with “such vengeance”.
“When things go wrong with governments such as that of President Mugabe it seems that the journalists often are the first to suffer the consequences,” the Johannesburg Press Club said in a statement.
“We just hope that sense will prevail and that Thornycroft will be released unharmed as soon as possible.” – Sapa
Zimbabwe Elections
South African Observer Mission’s report on Zimbabwe (Winzip file)
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