A reporter with one of Zimbabwe’s official newspapers got ”a taste of state medicine” last week when police angrily confiscated his camera and press card after a Cabinet minister accused him of spreading falsehoods, it was reported on Friday.
Samuel Kadungure, a reporter with the state-controlled Manica Post weekly, was covering a tour of a diamond-mining area in Chiadzwa, eastern Zimbabwe, last Thursday.
He was in the company of National Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, said the Manica Post, which is based in the border city of Mutare.
”When Mutasa introduced the reporter to Mines and Mining Development Minister Amos Midzi, all hell broke loose,” Kadungure said.
In an unusual show of discord between senior government ministers, Midzi accused the reporter of gate-crashing a protected zone. He told police to seize Kadungure’s state-issued press card and camera, the reporter claimed.
Zimbabwe is a notoriously difficult place for reporters to work in, unless they are employed by the state-controlled media.
Reporters for official radio and newspapers are normally able to work without harassment.
Reporters for the independent press are frequently arrested under Zimbabwe’s tough press law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which stipulates that all media workers must hold a valid licence.
Licences are rarely issued to those working for the independent press.
The clampdown on the private press has steadily worsened in the last two months, with at least four reporters beaten, a Time magazine correspondent from Britain arrested and forced to leave the country and an ageing local cameraman abducted and killed.
Kadungure was rescued by a senior police officer, according to the Manica Post. His equipment and press card were only returned a day later. The reporter described the altercation as ”sad.” — Sapa-dpa