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VOP bosses reporting conditions relaxed
MISA-Zimbabwe
February 10, 2006

A Harare magistrate on 10 February 2006 relaxed the reporting conditions against Voice of the People (VOP) radio board members when they appeared in court for a remand hearing.

David Masunda, VOP chairman, his deputy Arnold Tsunga, and board members Lawrence Chibwe, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, and Millie Phiri who are accused of operating a radio station without a licence in terms of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), are on $4 million dollars bail each.

The bail conditions for the accused were relaxed after their lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa successfully applied for the variation of the bail conditions.

The VOP bosses will no longer be required to report to the police every Friday as part of their bail conditions.

An application for refusal of further remand is expected to be made at the next remand hearing on 28 February.

Isabella Matambanadzo, the sixth accused, is, however not subjected to the same remand conditions because she is currently residing in South Africa.

She will only appear in court when their trial commences on a date that is still to be fixed.

Background
They are accused of contravening Section 7 (1) as read with paragraph 4 and 5 of the BSA Chapter 12:06 which deals with broadcasting and signal carrier licenses.

It is alleged that the accused set an office in Harare which they equipped with computers and produced programmes which were transmitted through the Internet to Radio Netherlands.

The broadcasts were then beamed into Zimbabwe through a relay station in Madagascar without an operating licence.

VOP director John Masuku who is appearing separately, is also on bail on charges of breaching the country's broadcasting laws.

Masuku was arrested after the police raided the VOP radio station's offices in Harare on 15 December 2006 during which they confiscated computers, equipment and administration files.

Three VOP workers Nyasha Bhosha, Maria Nyanyiwa and Kundai Mugwanda spent four nights in police custody following the raid. The three were subsequently released without being charged.

These developments come on the backdrop of the bombing of the VOP offices some three years ago on 29 August 2002.

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