Chibvuri Trial Continues

Bright Chibvuri, the editor of The Worker, a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) publication, was arrested last March while attending a workers’ union training seminar in Plumtree in southern Zimbabwe.
Plumtree resident magistrate Mark Dzira adjourned the hearing on Feb. 1 after stating that he needed time to consider legal arguments that had arisen during the trial.
Ironically, Chibvuri, who is out on bail, is being charged under provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which were repealed by the AIPPA Amendment Act, signed into law by President Mugabe on January 11. 
Lawyers handling the case, confirmed the hearing continues today and said the legal anomaly would be the central thrust of the defence team.
Chibvuri, who was accredited last year, was arrested in Plumtree after he failed to present his 2007 press card. His pleas to the police officer that he was still waiting for a new press card from the Media and Information Commission fell on deaf ears.
The journalist was thrown into filthy police cells where spent two days languishing in police custody before he was granted bail. He joins dozens of journalists who have been arrested over the past five years for allegedly violating the country’s tough media laws.
President Robert Mugabe’s government, which has banned four newspapers including the country’s biggest selling Daily News and hounded scores of journalists out of the country, is considered among the worst violators of press freedom in the world, with press freedoms groups branding him a media tyrant.