Two editors at a private weekly newspaper were arrested on Monday in Zimbabwe on charges of publishing a falsehood, their lawyer told AFP.
The editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, Vincent Kahiya, and the paper’s news editor Constantine Chimakure were summoned by police on Monday and taken into custody, their lawyer Innocent Chagonda said.
”They are alleged to have published a falsehood. They are still in custody. They will be taken to court tomorrow,” he said.
Police had gone to the newspaper’s offices on Saturday seeking to arrest them. When neither man was found, police issued a summons ordering them to appear before authorities on Monday, Changonda said.
He declined to say which story had sparked the charges, but the weekly Standard newspaper said the editors were wanted over a story that named the people involved in the abduction of opposition activists last year.
Under Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal, the government undertook to guarantee media freedoms but so far has taken no steps to revoke repressive media laws. — Sapa-AFP