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Journalist
arrested, another hospitalised after beating in detention
Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without
Borders
April 02, 2007
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21536
Reporters Without
Borders expressed outrage today at the arrest of a journalist working
for a privately-owned Zimbabwean daily published outside the country
and the hospitalisation of the former editor of the now-closed paper
The Daily News, after he was beaten in prison, and called for an
international campaign to stop the government's violence.
"The government
is stepping up its years-long violent behaviour, including against
journalists, under pressure of opposition protests and only international
efforts, especially in Africa, can stop the abitrary arrests and
abusive treatment," the worldwide press freedom organisation
said.
Gift Phiri,
of the London-based daily The Zimbabwean, was arrested in Harare
on 1 April for no apparent reason. He had time to send a text-message
to a friend saying he had been arrested and that he thought it was
for political reasons. The friend said Phiri had been sought by
police since his paper started printing the names of police and
politicians involved in recent arrests of opposition figures, human
rights activists and journalists.
Phiri was attacked
on 16 February last year on his way home in the eastern Harare suburb
of Sunningdale by men who accused him of working for the US radio
station Voice of America (VOA) and the privately-owned Zimbabwean
radio station Voice of People (VOP), which broadcasts from outside
the country.
Luke Tamborinyoka,
former editor of The Daily News, was taken to hospital on 30 March
on the orders of a Harare judge after fainting in court. He was
seriously injured in beatings since he was arrested on 28 March
in police raids on premises of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) along with 34 party activists. He was also badly beaten
by police during an opposition meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds (Harare)
on 11 March.
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