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Photojournalist Summoned to Appear before MIC
MISA-Zimbabwe
August 09, 2007

Award-winning Zimbabwean photo-journalist Tsvangirai Mukwazhi has been summoned to appear before the state-controlled Media and Information Commission on 10 August 2007 to answer alleged charges of 'deceiving' the licensing authority in terms of the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

Mukwazhi told MISA-Zimbabwe on 9 August 2007 that he had received a letter from the statutory media regulatory body summoning him to appear for a hearing at the MIC's offices in Harare. He could not give further details saying his lawyer was looking into the matter.

He said the MIC is accusing him of having deceived them by not disclosing all the media organisations he freelances for when he applied for his accreditation.

MISA-Zimbabwe is greatly disturbed at this turn of events as it comes hardly a week after Jocelyn Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga, on 1 August 2007 assaulted Mukwazhi at Makro Wholesalers in Harare. Chiwenga hurled all sorts of insults at Mukwazhi accusing him of advancing the agenda of Western imperialists.

On 11 March 2007 Mukwazhi was again at the receiving end of the state's well documented violations against media freedom and freedom of expression when he was arrested together with his colleague Tendai Musiyazviriyo, a film producer, with whom he freelances for Associated Press (AP). They were brutally assaulted while in police custody following their arrest.

The unlawful arrest and subsequent severe assault of Mukwazhi and Musiyazviriyo together with the leaders of opposition parties and civic society organisations while in police custody, resulted in them being hospitalised despite the fact that the two journalists had valid accreditation cards issued by the state-controlled MIC.

They were arrested in Harare's suburb of Highfield after police sealed off Zimbabwe
Grounds ahead of a planned national day of prayer organised under the auspices of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. The arrest and brutal assault of Mukwazhi in March 2007 was of great concern as his whereabouts remained unknown until he appeared in court two days later.

Meanwhile, Mukwazhi confirmed to MISA-Zimbabwe that he had been slapped several times by the army general's wife on 1 August 2007 following a visit to the South African owned retail chain by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other senior members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Tsvangirai and several senior members of his party had just left the wholesaler when Chiwenga spotted and descended on the photojournalist. The MDC leader and his delegation had apparently visited the wholesaler to assess the impact of the government-sanctioned price slashes on commodities.

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