CPJ calls on Mugabe to drop defamation charges

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement on Friday that it was “greatly disturbed” by criminal defamation charges brought by President Robert Mugabe against three journalists at the ‘Daily News’. “Regardless of the merits of these particular allegations, CPJ believes that journalists should never go to jail for what they write,” said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. “We call on Zimbabwean justice officials to drop these absurd charges immediately and allow the staff of the ‘Daily News’ to carry out their professional duties without further harassment.” ‘Daily News’ editor Geoff Nyarota and two of his reporters, Sandra Nyaira and Julius Zava, were charged on Wednesday with criminal defamation of Mugabe and parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa. The charges stem from articles published in the paper in November and December last year, alleging that a company called Air Harbour Technologies had bribed senior government officials to win the tender to build a new international airport in Harare. In recent weeks, the ‘Daily News’ has come under severe pressure both from police and officials of the ruling ZANU-PF party. On 29 March, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo filed a civil suit against the newspaper for publishing allegedly defamatory articles about him.