Independent journalists re-arrested

Four independent Zimbabwean journalists earlier charged under a section of the country’s draconian security Act and released, were rearrested a day later on Thursday under a different section of the law.

‘Daily News’ editor-in-chief Geoff Nyarota, assistant editor Bill Saidi, and journalists John Gambanga and Sam Munyavi were released on Wednesday after an urgent High Court application. The police then dropped the initial charge of publishing a false statement likely to cause “alarm or despondency” under Section 50 (2) (a) of the Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA) - which in 1999 had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court - for another charge on Thursday under Section 44 (2) (a) which deals with the “publishing of subversive statements”.

When IRIN contacted the men’s lawyer Lawrence Chibwe on Thursday afternoon, he said he was with his clients at the Harare central police station. He said they were signing “warn and caution” statements, after which he expected them to be released. He described the four journalists as being in “a jovial mood”. “Even if we don’t argue on a constitutional basis the charge is not competent on a legal basis,” he said.

The men were charged following a front page story in the newspaper on Tuesday which alleged that police vehicles had been used at the weekend during a looting spree of commercial farms by ruling ZANU-PF party militants in Mashonaland West province. Meanwhile, Mduduzi Mathuthu, a ‘Daily News’ reporter in Bulawayo, was also briefly arrested on Tuesday for allegedly breaching the same Act. His arrest followed an article in the newspaper’s Monday issue allegeing that a crowd had walked out on Vice-President Joseph Msika during a Heroes’ Day address at the provincial shrine when he asked them to chant ZANU-PF slogans.

The ‘Daily News’ is available at: http://www.dailynews.co.zw