The editor of Zimbabwe’s independent Sunday paper and a reporter were briefly arrested on Wednesday under the country’s security laws for a story deemed to endanger public safety, the newspaper said.
Bornwell Chakaodza, the editor of The Standard, was arrested along with reporter Valentine Maponga over a story the paper published on Sunday in which family members of a slain mining boss blamed government officials for the death.
”He was arrested under Posa [Public Order and Security Act] for allegedly… endangering public safety over our story about the Bindura nickel mine boss who was killed last week,” said assistant editor David Masunda.
The Standard carried a story quoting family members of Leonard Chimimba, chief executive officer of the giant nickel mine who was gunned down outside his house by unknown assailants, implicating senior government officials.
The family alleged that some ”so-called big guns” had plotted the murder of Chimimba. At the time of his death he was said to have been helping police and other investigators probing the disappearance of truckloads of nickel worth millions of dollars.
Several nickel-laden trucks went missing in South Africa on separate occasions last year.
”From their [the state’s] point of view, the story implied that it is a government of murderers and they are saying when people have the impression that it is a government of murderers, you are endangering public safety,” said Chakaodza by phone from the police station.
Chakaodza said the police told them they could go home after they had made their statements and that the police would contact them again on Thursday.
The law they allegedly violated makes it an offence to publish false statements prejudicial to the state. If convicted the two face a maximum five-year prison term or a fine not more than 100 000 Zimbabwean dollars (about $20). – Sapa-AFP