Journalists awarded for bravery

Three Southern African journalists on Tuesday received international recognition for their courage in the face of alleged persecution.

The two Zimbabweans and a Swazi were part of a group of 37 writers from 19 countries awarded the Hellman/Hammett Grant.

Each year, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the international human rights NGO, presents the grants worth US $175,000 to writers in financial need as a result of state harassment.

Zimbabwean journalists, Geoffrey Nyarota and Wilfred Mbanga, have repeatedly been "harassed" by the government. On several occasions Nyarota - editor of the country's largest independent newspaper the Daily News - has been charged with defamation and filing false reports.

Mbanga, one of the founders of the newspaper, was arrested with Nyarota in November 2001 and held for 32 hours on a false charge of fraud. A regional magistrate subsequently dismissed the allegation.

"This is an important recognition of the kind of work journalists do. I have been fighting for the freedom of the press all my life and am humbled by this grant. I hope it provides some kind of inspiration for other journalists working in these trying times. I hope for the day when we can once again write without fear of repression," Mbanga told IRIN.

On Tuesday, Zimbabwe's press laws, widely described as draconian, were referred to the country's supreme court by a magistrate who questioned their constitutionality, the news agency AFP reported.

Harare magistrate Sandra Nhau refused to let the latest trial of Nyarota - accused of "publishing falsehoods" - proceed. Instead, she granted a motion from defence lawyers to have the case heard by the country's highest court.

The charges against Nyarota arose from a story run by the Daily News in April, which subsequently proved false. It had alleged that a woman had been beheaded in front of her children by ruling ZANU-PF party militia.

The paper later retracted the story and offered an apology to ZANU-PF when it was established that the source of the story, a man claiming to be the dead woman's husband, fabricated the incident.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of two years in jail.

Sarah Mkhonza, an outspoken advocate of women rights in Swaziland, also received a grant for her weekly column which has been highly critical of the monarchy in the tiny kingdom. Mkhonza, a regular contributor to the country's only local independent newspaper had became a political target, alleged HRW.

"In many countries, governments use military and presidential decrees, criminal libel, and sedition laws to silence critics, often on trumped up charges. Writers and journalists are threatened, harassed, assaulted, indicted, jailed, or tortured merely for providing information from non-governmental sources. In addition to those who are directly targeted, many others are forced to practice self-censorship," said HRW.