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Four
reporters for foreign news media harassed in runup to parliamentary
polls
RSF/IFEX
February
18, 2005
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12598
Reporters
Without Borders today protested against a manhunt for a reporter
for foreign news media, Cornelius Nduna, and a 14 February police
raid on the Associated Press (AP) bureau in Harare in which Jan
Raath, Tsvangirai Mkwazhi and Angus Shaw - all stringers for the
AP and other foreign media - were threatened with arrest on spying
charges.
"The
government has once again shown that it likes to treat journalists
as enemies of the state, this time just six weeks before parliamentary
elections," the press freedom organizations said. "This paranoid
behaviour in which the foreign press is routinely accused of spying
for western countries is disgraceful and unacceptable at a time
when Zimbabwe is meant to conform with the Southern Africa Development
Community's (SADC) democratic criteria."
The
manhunt for Nduna, who strings for several foreign newspapers and
news agencies, was launched a week ago by the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO), Zimbabwe's secret police. Failing to find him
at his office, the CIO suspects he skipped the country with two
"very sensitive" video cassettes that could be dangerous for the
government if they fall into "enemy" hands, Nduna's lawyer, Beatrice
Mtetwa, told Reporters Without Borders.
Nduna
supposedly got the cassettes from the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC) with the help of an employee of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holding (ZBH). Mtetwa said they contain "sensitive" footage shot
in "youth training camps" that train militia blamed for attacks
and killings of members of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) during the past three years.
These
militia have in the past also burned many copies of newspapers such
as The Independent, The Daily News, The Financial Gazette and The
Standard and prevented them from circulating in rural areas.
Equipment
for "spying"
In
the raid on the AP bureau in Harare on the evening of 14 February,
police interrogated the journalists present for two hours and were
on the point of seizing satellite communication equipment which
they said could interfere with state security transmissions. The
police accused them of "spying" and of being "hostile" toward President
Robert Mugabe's government but calmed down when their lawyer, Mtetwa,
arrived.
The
police nonetheless insisted on checking the press accreditation
status of Raath and Mkwazhi, who have applied to the government-controlled
Media and Information Commission (MIC) but have not yet received
their final accreditation. Under the repressive Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act, journalists can be sentenced to two
years in prison for working without MIC accreditation, but may carry
on working if they have a receipt that shows they have applied.
Before
leaving the police promised to come back and deal with "spies."
They did return on 15 and 16 February but found no one present at
the AP bureau. Mtetwa said her clients are now in a safe place.
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