Victim

Incident

Date

Daily News and The Financial Gazette

Newspapers destroyed by ZANU PF youths on their way to the airport

10 January 2002

Basildon Peta former Secretary General of ZUJ1

Peta’s house is forcibly searched by the police

31 January 2002

Daily News Offices in Bulawayo

Campaign posters of President Mugabe are pasted all over the outside walls of the building

8 February 2002

Private Media

President Mugabe castigates the private media on a visit to Beira Mozambique accusing it of lying and being used by the west

17 February 2002

Private Media, freedom of expression

AIPPA signed into law by President Mugabe

15 March 2002

Daily News

Vendors Tongai Manomano and Munyaradzi Mapingo are beaten and newspapers destroyed by 15 ruling party youths in the town of Rusape

20 March 2002

Geoff Nyarota

Threatened with arrest by Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo over a story that appeared in the Daily News

27 March 2002

Peta Thornycroft

Denied access to her lawyer the first day after being arrested on 27 March. She was released on 31 March 2002

27 March 2002

Radio Dialogue Bulawayo

Raided by the police, searched and some documents and tapes are confiscated

16 April 2002

Marceline Nyangoni ZBC reporter

Threatened with ejection from a meeting that was addressed by the mayor of Harare

24 April 2002

The Daily News

Information Minister urges government departments and parastatals to stop advertising in the paper

29 April 2002

Transmedia

State owned signal transmission company is licensed. The company is so far the sole signal transmission company.

3 May 2002

The Daily News

The State owned Bulawayo based daily paper The Chronicle calls for the banning of the Daily News in a front page lead story

3 May 2002

State Media, The Herald, The Chronicle and ZBC

Barred from covering an MDC rally in Bulawayo

7 May 2002

The Daily News

Ruling party ZANU PF to sue the paper for writing that its supporters beheaded a woman. The paper apologized saying it was misled

13 May 2002

Foreign Correspondents Association

Supreme court rules that its challenge of AIPPA will not be heard as an urgent matter

16 May 2002

The Daily News and The Standard

Sued by Police Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena for defamation over stories that said that he once served in the colonial force

21 May 2002

Chris Gande Daily News Bulawayo

Thrown out of court by prison officers

28 June 2002

Capitol Radio

Challenges the broadcasting Act and seeks a license to operate. The supreme court reserved judgment and is yet to deliver it so far i.e. end of 2002

I July 2002

Zimbabwe private media and journalists

In a Sunday Mail story Information Minister Moyo threatens that media houses and journalists who do not register will be arrested

23 June 2002

Voice of the People Communications Trust (VOP)

Raided by the police and tapes and files are confiscated. These were later returned.

4 July 2002

Media Houses and journalists

The Media and Information Commission sets 31 October 2002 as the deadline for registration.

11 July 2002

Aspiring Satellite Broadcasters

Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe announces that none of the four aspiring satellite broadcasters applications for a license have been approved by Minister Moyo

11 July2002

Precious Shumba, Daily News and Peta Thornycroft British Daily Telegraph

Held hostage by war veterans and ruling party supporters for five hours together with a commercial farmer they were interviewing at a farm 26 km to the west of Harare

14 August 2002

ZBC

Bomb threat made in a phone call at the Mbare Studios. A search however finds nothing

13 September 2002

The Daily News

Information Minister Moyo calls on advertisers and readers to abandon the paper after a story that President Mugabe was snubbed by his colleagues at a regional meeting

8 October 2002

The Daily News

450 Newspapers confiscated by youths from the Border Gezi National Service Programme in Mutare, The vendors are threatened. Such incidents continued throughout the year and many are not recorded

9 October 2002

Media, freedom of expression

The government announces plans to amend AIPPA.

11 October 2002

The Herald

Four opposition MDC MPs threaten to sue and call on the police to arrests the editor and journalists of the paper for writing falsehoods

25 October 2002

The Financial Gazette, and Assistant Editor Abel Mutsakani and Political editor Sydney Masamvu

Attacked by Minister Moyo and his Permanent Secretary George Charamba and threatened with arrests over two stories that appeared in the paper on 24 October

25 October 2002

Blessing Zulu, Zimbabwe Independent and Pedzisai Ruhanya, Daily News

Threatened with shooting by police Assistant Inspector Dowa at the home of deceased MDC MP Learnmore Jongwe

25 October 2002

Radar Private (ltd) and private media

Threatened by Chimanimani based Central Intelligence Operative Joseph Mwale that he will not allow an aerial media tour of its (Radar) fire destroyed plantations because private media journalists are not welcome.

26 October 2002

Media houses and journalists

Tafataona Mahoso the Chairperson of the Media and Information Commission extends the accreditation and registration deadline to 21 November

25 October 2002

Journalists

Ruling party spokesperson and former information Minister Nathan Shamuyarira calls for tougher media laws

25 October 2002

TeleAccess and CEO Daniel Shumba

Expresses frustration at the delays in the issuing of a licence to the company for the provision of fixed telephone services. Shumba cites political interference and decries the infringement on freedom of expression.

I November 2002

SW Radio Africa

Zimbabwe’s Information and Justice Ministers threaten Zimbabweans working for the station with arrest if they return to the country

13 November 2002

Private Media

Information Minister castigates private media alleging that it is unpatriotic

18 November 2002

Zimbabwe Union of journalists

Loses a case to the media and Information Commission in which it sought that its concerns over the accreditation form be heard as an urgent matter.

18 November 2002

Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ)

Challenge to AIPPA instituted by IJAZ is heard in the Supreme Court

21 November