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VOP Trustees appear in court
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 28, 2006

VOP Trustees appeared in court today 28 February 2006 for further remand.

The trustees who appeared in court today were David Masunda, Lawrence Chibwe, Nhlanhla Ngwenya,Millicent Phiri and Arnold Tsunga . Isabella Matambanadzo was not present and she will only appear for the trial if the court rules that the matter will proceed to trial.

Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, acting for the trustees, had earlier advised during the last remand hearing that she was due to make an application for refusal of further remand, having notified the state and the police of such intention on several occasions prior to the hearing on the 10th of February, the Magistrate agreed that the Application had to be heard today. Earlier in the morning the state had further indicated that it was not prepared for the application as the officer instructed to deal with the matter was committed.

The matter was adjourned and continued an hour later. The defense counsel called to the witness stand an expert in broadcasting who had worked with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation for many years to give evidence on Broadcasting ,such as-what constitutes broadcasting, what are the apparatus for broadcasting etc. From the evidence led by the expert, one needs a transmitter to broadcast and there was need to distinguish between broadcasting and production. And there is only two short wave transmitters in Zimbabwe and VOP is not one of them according to the witness. Furthermore the apparatus should be either a modulator, exciter or transmitter and VOP did not have any of those and therefore they were not broadcasting according to the expert. When the court adjourned and reconverned in the afternoon, the state called its own witness from the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) who was at pains in trying to give evidence on what constitute broadcasting and explaining the alleged violations of the Broadcasting Services Act by VOP. VOP was broadcasting according to the state witness.

The presiding Magistrate Ms Rebbecca Takavadiyi advised that the matter will continue tommorow( 1 MARCH 2006) at 8:30.

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