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VOP
workers still detained
MISA-Zimbabwe
December 16, 2005
Voice Of the
People employees Maria Nyanyiwa, Nyasha Bosha and Kundai Mugwanda,
are likely to face charges of working for an unregistered radio
station and practising journalism without accreditation.
Otto Saki of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), who confirmed the
arrest of the three female employees said the police had indicated
that they were likely to be charged under the Broadcasting Act and
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).
Saki said the
three who were arrested on 15 December 2005, were likely to appear
in court on 17 December 2005. He said the ZLHR had also filed an
urgent application with the High Court for their immediate release.
The police were
reportedly insisting that the three would be charged under Section
28 as read with Section 36 (h) of the Broadcasting Act despite being
informed that a new law, the Broadcasting Services Act, had been
promulgated in 2001.
Practicing journalism
without accreditation carries a two-year imprisonment term or a
fine of $600 000 or to both such and imprisonment in terms of Section
83 of AIPPA.
The police were
reportedly also keen to question VOP chairman David Masunda, who
is also the deputy editor of the weekly Zimbabwe Standard, and its
director John Masuku.
Background
Police details from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), raided
the VOP Offices yesterday and confiscated equipment and other materials
from the station. Shorai Kariwa, a VOP senior officer told MISA-Zimbabwe
that the police had confiscated computers, portable recorders and
administration files.
State security
agents raided the Voice of the People (VOP) radio station in Harare
around 4pm where they reportedly intimidated workers as they searched
for documents and equipment at the station.
The state security
agents demanded to see the transmitters, equipment and news transcripts
that the station uses for its broadcasts. VOP, however, does not
broadcast from Zimbabwe.
The raid comes two weeks after the state security agents visited
the VOP offices and demanded to see the station’s director John
Masuku and its editor Shorai Kariwa.
They were, however,
not allowed in by security details at the radio station.
The offices
of the VOP which broadcasts on short-wave were bombed on 29 August
2002 during which property worth millions of dollars was destroyed.
The raid comes
hard on the heels of statements by the Minister of Information and
Publicity Dr Tichaona Jokonya who branded journalists working for
the private media as "weapons of mass destruction" and
willing tools of Western interests.
In a speech
delivered at the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe’s inaugural Consumer
Journalists Awards on 13 December 2005, Jokonya reportedly claimed
that journalists working for the private media were being paid by
Western countries to rubbish President Robert Mugabe’s government
and needed to be monitored.
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fact sheet
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