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Aspiring
community radio station raided and consultant arrested on allegations
of kidnapping
Media Institute
of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe Chapter (MISA-Zimbabwe)
April 16, 2002
Zimbabwe's riot police raided an aspiring community Radio Station,
Radio Dialogue, and arrested a Yugoslav international who is doing
consultancy work for the station. Radio Dialogue is based in Zimbabwe's
second city of Bulawayo.
In a message
to MISA-Zimbabwe, Father Nigel Johnson, the Coordinator of Radio
Dialogue said that disgruntled former managers of Radio Dialogue,
who are on suspension brought in the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation,
the police and the intelligence service to film the activities of
the station.
"The police
were very nice in the end once they discovered that we did not have
any transmission equipment, only recording equipment," said Father
Johnson. According to him, the Intelligence Officers took a few
papers from the office. In a report that appeared in the main news
bulletin of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation on 15 April, the
station, instead said that two of its news crew, Bulawayo Bureau
Chief Makhosini Hlongwane and Chief Cameraperson, Trust Mashoro
were manhandled by Radio Dialogue staff that threatened to throw
them from the 9th floor of the building. The ZBC also reported that
their staff was rescued by the riot police, which broke the door
leading to the room where the two had been locked in. The report
from Father Johnson however indicates that it is in fact the two
suspended managers who brought the ZBC and the Intelligence Officers.
The ZBC in its
news bulletin called the radio station a pirate radio station that
is spreading lies about Zimbabwe and fanning ethnic hatred. The
station also reported that the Yugoslav consultant was arrested
by the police and will be charged with the kidnapping of the ZBC
staff.
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sheet
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