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Journalist acquitted
MISA
May 06, 2005

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/66461/

On 2 May 2005, Richard Musazulwa, a correspondent with the "Standard" weekly newspaper, was acquitted on charges of abusing journalistic privilege under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The charges had emanated from a 22 August 2004 story published by the "Standard" alleging that hungry youths of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party had attempted to gatecrash a luncheon for senior party officials hosted by the Zimbabwe Air Force at Thornhill Airbase in Gweru.

Musazulwa, who is also the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists' Midlands provincial secretary, was accused of contravening Section 80 (1) (b) of AIPPA Chapter 10:27, which deals with abuse of journalistic privilege by publishing falsehoods.

Gweru Magistrate Auxillia Chiumburu acquitted Musazulwa after his lawyer, Tonderai Chitere, successfully argued that he should not be put to his defence as the state had failed to establish its case against him.

In her ruling, Chiumburu said the state's two witnesses, Zimbabwe Air Force squadron leader Knox Mpofu and Obert Chabalala, the secretary of the ZANU-PF Youth League in the Midlands Province, had given conflicting evidence. Mpofu, chief security officer at Thornhill Airbase, had testified that he had checked with officers who were on duty on the day in question and had been informed that no report had been made to that effect.

The magistrate said that, when dealing with criminal matters, the courts relied on facts and not on "hearsay evidence." Chiumburu said the state should have provided evidence from witnesses who were at the scene as opposed to relying on hearsay evidence.

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