The Guardian’s Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was yesterday accused of breaking the terms of his residence permit by writing about the country’s political situation.
Officials told Meldrum, who has been covering Zimbabwe for 23 years, that he was allowed to write only about economics and tourism. They confiscated his residence permit and passport.
Lawyers for Meldrum, one of the last foreign reporters in the country, fear the government is attempting to deport him. Last Wednesday, immigration officers arrived unannounced at his home after dark and said he was wanted for questioning. He was not there. His lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said such night-time approaches ”invariably led to arrest, detention and deportation”.
The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, said he could only conclude the authorities were attempting to intimidate Meldrum and undermine the operation of a free press in Zimbabwe.
Mtetwa wrote to the immigration authorities saying Meldrum was prepared to be interviewed by officials at their offices in normal working hours. Yesterday Meldrum, an American citizen, voluntarily went to the immigration offices in Harare with Mtetwa and a US consular official. The official was not allowed to sit in on the meeting.
Meldrum said a senior immigration official told him that he had been writing ”bad stories” about Zimbabwe and his residence permit allowed him to write only about economics and tourism. Meldrum argued that the permit simply stated that he was allowed to work as a journalist.
Outside the immigration offices Meldrum said he felt ”grimly determined”. He said: ”I am defending not just my rights in Zimbabwe, but the rights of all journalists here and of permanent residents.”
After the raid at his home, he feared for his own safety and that of his wife and lawyer. ”But that is the way many people live in Zimbabwe today.”
Mtetwa is to deliver a letter to the immigration service today putting forward Meldrum’s position.
The Zimbabwean authorities have been attempting to imprison and deport Meldrum (51) for more than a year. Last July the high court rejected a move by the government of President Robert Mugabe to have him deported. The previous week a magistrates court acquitted Meldrum of charges brought under a new press law which threatened to punish journalists writing ”falsehoods”.
International press watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières has called on the government of Zimbabwe to stop its ”harassment” of Meldrum. – Guardian Unlimited Â