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Rights abuse - Journalists' arrests
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly update 2003-4
January 27th - February 2nd 2003

The ongoing human rights violations continued to hog the limelight in the media with focus being on the harassment of media practitioners, opposition supporters and civic groups under the cover of the repressive AIPPA and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Most of the reports on rights abuses appeared in the private media, which carried about 37 (76%) out of 49 reports in the media. The stories included incidents and follow-up reports.

The private Press had about 22 stories, with The Daily News carrying 15 of these. On the other hand ZIMPAPERS had five reports. The trend was similar in the broadcast media. The privately owned SW Radio Africa carried about 15 stories from January 27th to January 30th, while ZBC 's 3FM and ZTV had three and four reports respectively.

At the beginning of the week, The Daily News (27/01) followed up The Sunday Mail (26/01) report that five foreigners working for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and three locals, including a Daily News journalist, were under "house arrest" at a hotel in Zvishavane for allegedly working as journalists without proper accreditation.

The Daily News, using a Reuters interview, quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena denying that the five were arrested but insisted that they were foreign journalists, who "could be on some clandestine mission".

That evening, ZTV (27/01, 8pm) also broadcast a police statement echoing Bvudzijena's comments. However, both The Daily News and ZBC (27/01) failed to get comment from LWF on the issue.

Conversely, SW Radio Africa (28/01) accorded space to the organization. The LWF said the five foreigners, arrested under AIPPA, were in the country to tour projects of the foundation in preparation for LWF's 10th summit to be held in Canada. Dr Norgle of the LWF said "65 million people throughout the world" received the story and it would be difficult for LWF to "rebuild that positive image that it is struggling to maintain on behalf of Zimbabwe." Subsequently, ZBC (ZTV, 29/01, 8pm & 3FM, 29/01, 8pm) announced that the five had been released "following a chamber hearing before a Zvishavane magistrate who ruled that there was no convincing evidence against them". The report added that they were however deported.

The police were quoted as having said "the five were deported by immigration officials who found their conduct inconsistent with their visa applications.", but it failed to explain what these inconsistencies were. The following day, The Herald also reported that the five had been deported for "working illegally in the country", despite the fact that no incriminating evidence was found against them.

No effort was made to examine why the accused were deported when the courts had found them innocent.

In another related case, SW Radio Africa (28/01), the Chronicle (29/01) The Daily News and The Financial Gazette (30/01) reported that a Daily News photographer and two foreign journalists were summarily detained in Bulawayo for going about their duties.

However, the media differed in details about the incident. While SW Radio Africa, The Daily News and The Financial Gazette reported that two foreign journalists and a local one were arrested for taking pictures of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) silos in Bulawayo, the Chronicle masked the identity of the place by reporting that only two foreign journalists were detained for "taking pictures in restricted areas in the city". Also, the Chronicle reported the issue in isolation, while the private media tried to link the incident with the Zvishavane case.

All media however, concurred that the journalists were later released without charge after the police discovered that they were part of the Press team that accompanied James Morris of the World Food Programme. The Daily News (31/01) also reported that its reporters were allegedly barred by state security agents from covering President Mugabe's address to the chiefs in Bulawayo.

MMPZ condemns the barring of journalists during the conduct of their duty as this hinders the free flow of information, which constitutes a vital cog in democratic society.

Meanwhile, The Herald, The Daily News, The Daily Mirror and The Financial Gazette (30/01) reported that police broke up a meeting called by Harare executive mayor Elias Mudzuri to address residents on problems affecting the city.

While The Herald and The Daily Mirror quoted the police as saying the meeting was not sanctioned by the police as required under POSA, The Daily News reported that the police had earlier approved the meeting, a point that was also noted on ZTV (29/01, 8pm).

The Financial Gazette, The Daily News (30/01) and The Zimbabwe Independent quoted Mudzuri as criticizing the police for selectively applying the rule of law. He was quoted as saying while the police were quick to suppress his meetings they were reluctant to deal with ZANU PF activists in Kuwadzana, who were illegally camped on council premises from where they allegedly harassed members of the opposition.

As if to prove these claims, that same day, The Daily News, 30 abducted, tortured by police- MDC, quoted the MDC alleging that ZANU PF youths and armed policemen were beating up people who were breaching an "unofficial curfew" they had imposed in the suburb.

Allegations of torture of opposition members by state security agents were even corroborated in The Herald (28/01) comment, Torture is wrong, useless. The article condemned the use of torture to elicit information by the police. It observed: "First class intelligence officers and first class police do not resort to torture. They obtain their information or their evidence with their brains, not their hands."

However, the comment lost its way when it suggested that the police could deny suspects food to get information. The editorial also lost its bearings towards the end when it seemed to suggest that opposition members "arrested for kidnapping and torturing members of other parties" deserved the kind of treatment they received from the police.

It stated: "We don't expect them to cry foul when the tables are turned against them."

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