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Government
threatens foreign correspondents
MISA-Zimbabwe
March 23, 2007
Zimbabwean based foreign correspondents Jan Raath and Peta Thornycroft
have been warned by the government to steer clear of the country's
security matters or risk unspecified action against them.
The threats
were issued through the Ministry of Information and Publicity in
the wake of the growing international condemnation of Zimbabwe's
dented human rights record following the brutal assault of leaders
of opposition parties and civic society organisations on 11 March
2007 when the police disrupted a national day of prayer scheduled
at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield under the auspices of the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign.
The ministry
singled out Cable News Network (CNN) for what it described as its
"biased reportage of the situation in the country and accused
some foreign embassies based in Harare of clandestinely bringing
in foreign journalists to build up tensions in the country. The
government said it was concerned with the 'false stories'
emanating from the network regarding the country's "security
arms".
"It (government)
therefore advises these reporters, who include Peta Thornycroft
and Jan Raath, to stay clear of the security forces, indeed to shun
an opposition politician who has been deep-throating them.
"Should
this not stop, government may be forced to act against them and
the politician," said the Ministry.
CNN recently
reported that the government had asked for troop reinforcements
from Angola to contain "unrest" in the country in the
form of 2 500 members of the country's paramilitary police
force.
The threats
come on the backdrop of the deportation in 2003 of Andrew Meldrum,
a correspondent of the Guardian and a permanent Zimbabwean resident
despite two High Court orders barring his deportation.
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