Journalists fined for defaming government commission

Three Zimbabwean journalists have been fined for criminally defaming members of the commission appointed by President Robert Mugabe to draw up a new constitution, news reports said.

The three - managing director Clive Wilson, then acting editor Andrew Moyse and reporter Chengetai Zvauya of the independent ‘Standard’ newspaper - published a story in February which claimed that the daft constitution had been printed months before the commission had concluded its research.

Magistrate Virginia Sithole said the story had affected the outcome of the referendum. She said that the story had damaged the reputations of the commission’s members who included a high court judge and members of parliament.