The government’s crackdown on the media shows no signs of abating.
Journalism was never the safest line of work in Zimbabwe, but since President Robert Mugabe enacted a new media law just days after his messy re-election, the job hazards are growing.
Eleven journalists from the private and foreign press have been arrested in the 10 weeks since the law took effect — more if you count those who were just questioned by police and those who have been arrested more than once. Nine are being prosecuted under the euphemistically titled Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the parade of journalists through police stations shows no sign of ending.
A further worrying development is a crackdown by the Zimbabwean authorities on local journalists providing critical reportage for foreign publications. Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo is known to be intent on identifying such journalists and shutting them down.
A Zimbabwean journalist has been suspended after writing for the Mail & Guardian. It is suspected that the Zimbabwean High Commission in South Africa relayed the journalist’s name to the Zimbabwean authorities.
On Wednesday Andrew Meldrum, a correspondent for Britain’s The Guardian, among others, and Zimbabwean journalist Lloyd Mudiwa of the Daily News, were remanded out of custody until May 30. They face charges of publishing falsehoods under a provision of the act called “abuse of journalistic privilege”.
Their case stemmed from a front-page story in the Daily News, alleging that a woman had been beheaded by Zanu-PF supporters. The story was later proved false and both the Daily News and The Guardian published corrections.
Another Daily News reporter, Collin Chiwanza, was arrested over the beheading story, but a judge tossed out the charges against him.
Daily News editor Geoff Nyarota was detained for four hours on Monday and charged for the same story. He was charged on April 15 with fabricating information, for a story alleging the registrar general had manipulated election results.
Another editor, Bornwell Chakaodza of the weekly The Standard, and his reporter, Farayi Kanyuchi, were arrested for the second time in less than a week on Tuesday over a story claiming that police were having sex with prostitutes instead of arresting them. Their first arrest was related to the story, the second related to the accompanying rear shot of a prostitute wearing a thong.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Association has filed a lawsuit asking the supreme court to declare the most restrictive parts of the law unconstitutional violations of free speech. But the court, which was expanded last year to include four new judges considered loyal to Mugabe, ruled last week that the matter was not urgent, meaning the case could languish for months in the court docket.
Lawyers for local media are coordinating with the foreign correspondents to challenge the law from different angles, but in the meantime they expect to continue their weekly trips to the magistrate’s court.
The new law gives Moyo sweeping powers to decide who can work as a journalist and to discipline journalists through a new commission. It also limits foreign ownership of media in Zimbabwe and bars foreigners from working as correspondents based permanently here.
Moyo, already known for his venomous and personal attacks on journalists, cleared any doubts about his view of press rights when in the state-run Herald he called press freedom “only a small and subsidiary part” of constitutional guarantees of free expression.
The government’s crackdown has drawn condemnation from regional and international press rights groups. The Paris-based Reporters without Borders earlier this month declared Zimbabwe one of the 10 worst countries in the world in which to work as journalists — ranking it alongside war zones like the West Bank and Afghanistan.
Additional reporting by M&G reporter