A reporter for a British-based Zimbabwean newspaper has appeared in court on charges of writing falsehoods and working without a licence, reports said on Friday.
Gift Phiri (30) had been assaulted in custody, his lawyer says.
He was arrested at his Harare home last weekend and appeared in court on Thursday facing two charges under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
State prosecutors allege that Phiri, a reporter for the Zimbabwean, a privately-owned newspaper, was arrested for an article he wrote in November.
According to the Herald, the contentious report alleged that senior security commanders including the head of the defence forces had urged President Robert Mugabe to step down as they wanted to preserve his legacy. The report said they were amenable to the idea of any serving or retired army general coming in as his successor.
Publishing falsehoods and working without a press card are offences under the notorious press law, punishable by a fine or a jail sentence.
Phiri’s lawyer told the court his client, who was released on bail and remanded to April 25 for trial, was tortured while in police custody and had a finger broken.
The Zimbabwean newspaper says Phiri applied for a press card and was still waiting for a response from the state-appointed Media and Information Commission.
The past three weeks have seen a crackdown by the police and security agents on members of the main opposition as well as civic rights activists.
Meanwhile police say they were investigating the death of a retired technician for the state-run broadcaster ZBC.
Edward Chikomba is reported to have gone missing from his Harare home on March 29. He was found dead in Darwendale, outside Harare, two days later.
Initial foreign press reports suggested Chikomba had been targeted by a hit squad for providing pictures to foreign media outlets of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai following his beating at the hands of police on March 11.
However, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) office in Zimbabwe said it has no record of Chikomba, who retired from ZBC in 2000, still working as a journalist.
”We were not able to establish the status of his professional life,” one Misa official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur in a telephone interview.
Family and friends contacted by Misa officials had not been able to confirm whether Chikomba, a father of four, had been engaged in any sort of freelance journalism since his retirement. Nobody has claimed him as a stringer for a foreign organisation, added the Misa official.
In a separate development, the cash-strapped Zimbabwe government is releasing a whopping Z8,9-billion (R249-million, $35-million) to set up a new shortwave radio station it hopes will counter hostile international media, the Herald said.
The new radio station would be based in the central city of Gweru and should be available to audiences both in and outside Zimbabwe. It would start broadcasting before independence celebrations on April 18, said Information Minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu.
”There will be a revolutionary development in the media. We should be able to tell our own story,” Ndlovu was quoted as saying.
Zimbabwean authorities tightly control the airwaves, and no independent radio or television stations have been allowed to operate. But several foreign radio stations are available on shortwave and private satellite, including the BBC and the Voice of
America.
Jamming equipment has been used to block successfully the signal of the UK-based SW Radio Africa station, which is critical of the government. – Sapa-DPA