A Zimbabwe court has fined two Botswana reporters for breaching a law barring journalists from working in the country without government approval.
Critics say President Robert Mugabe’s government is using tough media laws — which also bar foreign journalists from setting up base in Zimbabwe — to terrorise the media and curb criticism in the face of a severe economic crisis.
The official Herald newspaper said on Thursday TV reporter Beauty Mokoba and cameraman Koketso Seofela were fined Zim$5 000 ($20) each, or two months in prison, after pleading guilty to illegally crossing the Botswana-Zimbabwe border and filming an animal disease control checkpoint earlier this year.
The two were arrested and released on bail in April and have appeared at a Zimbabwe district magistrate’s court on the border with Botswana.
The Zimbabwean government says its media laws were designed to bring order to an industry operating unprofessionally and denies it has targeted its opponents and critics. – Reuters