Zimbabwe police have arrested a journalist employed at an independent newspaper for “criminal defamation” of the police commissioner, sending shivers through the country’s media corps.
The arrest of Nqobani Ndlovu of the Standard, one of Zimbabwe’s few independent newspapers, follows the issuing of an arrest warrant two weeks ago for Wilf Mbanga, the London-based editor and publisher of the Zimbabwean newspaper.
Mbanga’s alleged offence was to publish a story in 2008 that “undermined President Robert Mugabe”.
Ndlovu faces charges under section 96 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act in connection with an article he wrote that allegedly cast police commissioner Augustine Chihuri and the police force in a bad light.
The story claimed that promotional examinations marked for early November in the police force had been scrapped and that instead war veterans and retired police officers were being called up to fill the vacancies to spearhead a Zanu-PF victory in next year’s scheduled election. Zimbabwe’s defamation laws have mainly been used to protect public figures and government institutions.
It is a story familiar to many of the country’s journalists: a year before elections and signs of a crackdown on the media are already evident. This is in spite of the formation of a unity government which committed itself to ushering in a new era of press freedom.
Silencing journalists
The 2010 press freedom index of international watchdog Freedom House ranks Zimbabwe lowest of all the states in the Southern African Development Community and places it 181st of 196 countries worldwide — a similar ranking to war-ravaged Somalia.
Said a senior journalist who requested anonymity: “Zanu-PF is going all out to silence anyone who doesn’t toe the line. This is, of course, expected as it gears up for elections.”
Ndlovu appeared in court on Monday and was granted $100 bail. But state prosecutors appealed against his release and invoked section 121 of the Criminal Law Act, allowing for his detention for a further seven days.
It is understood this section of the statute is normally used to prevent the release of dangerous criminals such as carjackers and armed robbers.
In 2008 Brezhnev Malaba and Nduduzo Tshuma, of the Chronicle, were the first journalists working for a state-owned publication to be charged with criminal defamation, in connection with a story that alleged police were involved in black-market deals in cahoots with officials from the grain marketing board.
Neither was imprisoned, however, sparking speculation about bias on the part of the authorities.
Meanwhile, members of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, hailing mainly from the independent press, met this week to send an SOS to members and mobilise support for Ndlovu’s release, in what they described as “a war”.
Said union president Dumisani Sibanda: “The media fraternity is worried about Nqobani’s continued arrest, which is meant to cow all of us into silence. It’s absolutely unacceptable that we can’t criticise government institutions because of such repressive laws.”
The Norwegian Union of Journalists has petitioned Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to end the harassment.
“We urge the protection of all the country’s journalists from all kinds of violence and intimidation and to safeguard media people in doing their duty of informing the public,” it said.