A journalists’ union in Zimbabwe on Tuesday expressed outrage over the arrest of two senior journalists from a privately owned weekly newspaper on charges of publishing falsehoods.
”The detention of Zimbabwe Independent editor Vincent Kahiya and news editor Constantine Chimakure comes at a time when the editor of the Sunday News, Brezhnev Malaba and journalist Nduduzo Tshuma are facing criminal defamation charges,” Zimbabwe Union of Journalists secretary general Foster Dongozi said in a statement.
Kahiya and Chimakure were arrested on Monday after they handed themselves over to the police who had earlier arrived at the paper’s offices looking for the journalists.
Police said the arrest was in connection with a story published in the newspaper on Friday which reported on court documents that named security agents involved in the abductions of rights and opposition activists in November and December.
”Veteran broadcaster Jestina Mukoko has been in and out of jail on allegations of recruiting bandits while freelance photo-journalist Andrison Manyere is in custody on similar charges,” Dongozi said.
”In view of ongoing attempts to rebrand the country in order to attract investment and tourism, the latest move amounts to a spectacular ‘own goal’.”
The arrests came days after the government held a media conference over the weekend to pave the way for relaxing strict press restrictions.
But many reporters snubbed the conference over the detention of freelance journalist Manyere.
Under Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal, the government vowed to guarantee media freedoms but so far has taken no steps to revoke repressive media laws. — Sapa-AFP