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Children's
rights activists and documentarists arrested
MISA-Zimbabwe
August 23, 2007
Two American
children's rights activists were today, 23 August, deported
from Zimbabwe for practicing journalism without accreditation after
filming a documentary on the Director of Girl
Child Network, Betty Makoni.
Speaking to MISA-Zimbabwe
on 23 August 2003, Betty Makoni said the three were detained on
Monday 20 August 2007 after intelligence officers descended on the
Girl Child Network village in Chitungwiza, a town outside the capital,
Harare. Video cameras, filming equipment, passports and tickets
were confiscated and they were told to report to the police the
following morning at 8 pm.
On reporting
to the police yesterday, the three were arrested and interrogated
for over 13 hours. Makoni was released after this period without
any charges while the other two were held in police custody overnight
as the charges had not yet been specified. Today, 23 August 2007,
the trio was charged under section 83.1 of the draconian Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which prohibits
practicing journalism in the country without accreditation.
Mr. Chibwe,
of the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), who represented the three,
was manhandled and dragged out of the police station when he attempted
to visit the three in jail on 21 August. He was threatened with
imprisonment if he persisted in trying to gain access to his clients.
The Americans were in
the country to film Betty Makoni's work at Girl Child Network
ahead of the launch of a book entitled "Women who lie in the
dark" in which she will be featured. All the equipment, excluding
a laptop was returned to the Americans before they left. MISA-Zimbabwe
was informed by Betty Makoni that the police say the laptop will
be given to their lawyer in due course.
Visit
the MISA-Zimbabwe fact
sheet
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