Back to Index

Statement on Deportation of Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum from Zimbabwe
Media Institute of Southern Africa - South Africa
May 21, 2003

The summary illegal deportation in defiance of Supreme Court orders of the London Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum from Zimbabwe on May 16 raises several serious issues which impact on the treatment of journalists, the rule of law and the conduct of the President and his officials, states the South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.

The South African chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA-South Africa) condemns the deportation as an unwarranted attack on the freedom and independence of the media and an abrogation of the rights of a journalist to pursue legal redress against the authoritarian conduct of officials.

He is the sixth foreign correspondent to be deported from Zimbabwe, a clear indication that the government seeks to prevent information about the political and economic disaster that it has visited on the country to be reported on.

Coming immediately after the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional clauses in one of the numerous laws intended to clamp down on reporting on conditions in Zimbabwe, Meldrum's deportation represents yet another desperate attempt by the authorities to resort to illegal means to suppress independent journalism. Other journalists have been detained with no charges being brought against them or what charges there were being thrown out by the courts.

Meldrum, an American citizen who has lived in Zimbabwe for 23 years and has permanent residence, has been the subject of a year-long campaign of vilification by the state media. Last year when a deportation order was served on him, a High Court judge ordered that it be suspended pending his appeal to the Supreme Court. A court on May 16 issued two further orders forbidding his deportation and demanding that he be produced in court. Despite this, the immigration authorities and the police manhandled him into a car, placed a jacket over his head so that he should not know his destination, ignored the court order, legal requests by American diplomats and his lawyer to see him and bundled him on to a late night flight to London.

These numerous illegal acts mean that the rule of law no longer has force and effect in Zimbabwe and that the government is in breach of African Union and other protocols promoting good governance, the rule of law and freedom of the media.

The third important area of concern is that South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has stated that he had been assured by President Robert Mugabe that restrictions on the media were to be eased and human rights abuses eliminated. These events give the lie to these undertakings and provide yet another instance of Mugabe breaking his word to his peers.

MISA-South Africa therefore calls on the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to investigate these unlawful acts and impose sanctions on Zimbabwe in terms of their protocols. It also calls on President Mbeki publicly to renounce his policy of "quiet diplomacy" and take firm action against Mugabe and his top officials by refusing them entrance to SA.

Enquiries: Raymond Louw MISA-SA National Governing Council Member Tel: (011) 646 8790/6085 Fax (011) 646 2596 P O Box 261579 Excom 2023 Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP