Iden Wetherell, editor of the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent, says he stands by the story that landed him and two reporters in jail for the weekend.
The men were released on bail on Monday. They were arrested after printing a report that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe had ”commandeered” an Air Zimbabwe plane to go on holiday.
Wetherell (55), news editor Vincent Kahiya and reporter Dumisani Muleya were granted bail of Z$20 000 by Harare magistrate Kudzai Tongogara. They appeared on charges of ”criminal defamation” against Mugabe.
”It is essential that President Mugabe is accountable to the Zimbabwe public. That’s the whole point. We will continue to examine how much he spends, and where and when. We will continue to follow him in terms of public accountability,” Wetherell told the Mail & Guardian Online on Tuesday.
Wetherell said a remand hearing had been set down for January 29, but he had no idea when the trial would start.
Wetherell was charged under a criminal defamation law that he said had been struck down by courts in most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth countries.
He said the law’s jurisdiction was incompatible with democratic practice and had recently been revoked by Ghana and Sri Lanka.
”It is regarded as an anomaly and has been used by colonial governments to deal with outspoken critics in the press. It lurks in the armoury of the Zimbabwe government.”
He said the conditions in the Harare Central prison had been ”pretty awful” and said he would not recommend an overnight stay. He said conditions had been crowded at times, but that on the whole, they had been treated well.
Wetherell said there was no material difference in the facts reported by the Zimbabwe Independent and those supplied by the state.
”We’re all in agreement. The plane was taken and used by Mugabe.”
Asked about press freedom in Zimbabwe, he said: ”It’s not dead yet — we wouldn’t even say it’s dying.”
He said his paper fulfilled an important role in ensuring that there was a measure of diversity in the media.
He highlighted the fact the state has contemptuously ignored court orders in keeping the Daily News off the streets.
”Mugabe is effectively acting extra-legally. It’s a continuing worry the way in which the state refuses to obey court orders. The rule of law is being steadily eroded. The voice of the press is being trampled by a rogue state with no respect for the law,” he said.
The three were arrested on Saturday after the newspaper reported on Friday that Mugabe last week ”commandeered” an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 to fly him and his family around Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore on his annual holiday.
The state claimed that the story was ”false and criminally defamatory of the president”.
On Saturday, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the report was ”blasphemous”.
Emerging unshaven from the brief hearing, Wetherell said: ”We certainly stand by our story and any suggestion that it was false we reject. We will be putting up a robust defence.
”This clumsy attempt to silence us by locking us up for 48 hours, prosecuting us over a story where much of the facts are agreed, will do nothing to silence the voice of the Zimbabwe Independent.” — Sapa