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Editor fined Z$100 000
MISA-Zimbabwe
August 16, 2005

Willie Mponda, the editor of The Sun, a Gweru-based weekly community newspaper, has been convicted of publishing falsehoods making him the first journalist to be successfully prosecuted under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) since its enactment in 2002.

Mponda was on Friday 12 August 2005 found guilty and fined Z$ 100 000 for publishing falsehoods following the publication of a story which claimed that a Gweru woman had committed suicide after the police destroyed her two telephone shops.

Gweru magistrate Matione, convicted Mponda for contravening Section 15 (1) (c) Chapter 11:17 of POSA which deals with the publication of a false statement prejudicial to the State.

The offence carries a five-year prison term, or alternatively a fine of Z$100 000, or both imprisonment and fine.

On 10 June 2005, the Sun published a story which claimed the police had destroyed the telephone shops in question at the height of the clean-up campaign, Operation Restore Order, to rid urban areas of illegal structures, street vendors and suspected criminals.

The State dismissed the story as false saying no telephone shops had been destroyed by the police during the blitz and that no Gweru woman had committed suicide as a result.

The magistrate noted that by printing a retraction, The Sun had acknowledged that the story was false and that Mponda was, therefore, guilty of publishing falsehoods.

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