/ 27 May 2008

Three South Africans held in Zimbabwe

Three South African nationals have been arrested in southern Zimbabwe after police found them with broadcasting equipment belonging to Britain’s Sky News, state television reported on Tuesday.

”A vehicle has been impounded and three South African nationals arrested at a roadblock in Mbalabala after a Sky News broadcasting kit was discovered,” the report said.

Provincial police spokesperson Ronald Muderedzwa said the three and another suspect had been broadcasting illegally from a factory in the second city of Bulawayo.

”They were unable to account properly on how they came in possession of that equipment, but they said they had been sent by certain white South Africans who are in Bulawayo.

Muderedzwa said police were investigating the matter.

The report said the trio had tried to bribe the police, adding that the equipment comprised satellite dishes, transmitters, laptops, telephone handsets and audio and videotapes.

Zimbabwe authorities barred most foreign news organisations from covering the joint presidential, parliamentary elections on March 29 and had warned they would deal severely with journalists who had not obtained accreditation.

However, a number of news organisations such as the BBC, CNN and Sky News have been filing reports on Zimbabwe using undercover journalists.

President Robert Mugabe’s government passed a law on the eve of the last presidential election in 2002 that has been invoked to expel foreign correspondents and shut down at least four independent newspapers. – AFP