British journalist to appear in Zimbabwean court today

BULAWAYO – A British journalist will appear in a Zimbabwe court today to face trial for violating the country’s immigration laws when he allegedly falsely declared on arrival at an airport that he was a tourist.

The journalist, Clayton Jonathan Michael, 54, was arrested last Wednesday on arrival at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo. He is detained at Bulawayo Central police station.

He was denied bail and is appearing in court on Monday (today), his lawyer Josephat Tshuma told ZimOnline.

 

Michael is the third Western journalist arrested in Zimbabwe in the past three weeks for allegedly reporting without official permission from the government’s Media and Information Commission (MIC).

 

New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak and British journalist Stephen Bevan were held in jail for days for allegedly covering Zimbabwe’s just-ended election without accreditation. They were later released on bail.

Two South African satellite technicians, Sipho Maseko and Abdulla Gaibee, also spent several days in jail after police arrested them for allegedly covering the election without accreditation.

Zimbabwean authorities barred most foreign media from covering the March 29 elections and warned that it would deal severely with journalists who sneaked into the country to report illegally.

 

Scores of foreign journalists sneaked into the country but the dangers were highlighted when police pounced on those unlucky to be discovered.

Both local and foreign journalists must be accredited with the MIC in order to practice their profession in Zimbabwe, with those failing to do so facing arrest and imprisonment.

Zimbabwe is widely regarded as one of the most difficult countries in the world for journalists to work in.

In addition to laws requiring journalists to seek accreditation in order to work in the country, newspapers are also required to register with the state media commission, with those failing to do so facing closure and seizure of their property by the police.

Another law, the Public Order and Security Act, imposes a sentence of up to two years in jail on journalists convicted of publishing falsehoods that may cause public alarm and despondency, while the Criminal Codification Act imposes up to 20-year jail terms on journalists convicted of denigrating President Robert Mugabe in their articles.  

Repression against the independent media usually peaks during elections. – ZimOnline

Court bars vote recount before results are announced

Own Correspondent

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s High Court on Sunday barred the country’s electoral commission from recounting ballots cast in combined elections more than two weeks ago before it has released the results of the presidential vote.

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s High Court on Sunday barred the country’s electoral commission from recounting ballots cast in combined elections more than two weeks ago before it has released the results of the presidential vote.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has released results of the House of Assembly and Senate elections but withheld results of the presidential poll, plunging Zimbabwe into a political stalemate that the opposition has warned could lead to violence and bloodshed.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party approached the court on Sunday after ZEC announced it would recount votes for the presidential, parliamentary and local council elections in 23 constituencies even though the commission has not yet announced results for the presidential election.

MDC lawyer Selby Hwacha told journalists: “The judge found it not just illegal but grossly unreasonable to order a recount before the result is out. The law is clear about when the recount is done. A candidate requests for a recount within 48 hours after the result has been declared.”

President Robert Mugabe, who snubbed a regional summit that discussed Zimbabwe’s election stalemate at the weekend, is believed to have lost to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

 

The High Court is expected to rule on Monday morning on a separate application by the MDC demanding an immediate release of results for the presidential election.

Tsvangirai says he won sufficient votes to takeover the presidency but projections by the ruling ZANU PF and independent observers show that the MDC leader won with less than 50 percent of the vote, warranting a second round run-off against Mugabe.

The opposition leader, who accuses Mugabe of staging a coup to keep himself in power, says the veteran leader is delaying issuing of presidential election results to use the time to prepare for a campaign of violence and intimidation to cow Zimbabweans to vote for him in the anticipated run-off.

In a Sunday communiqué, Zimbabwe’s neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) called on ZEC to release results for the presidential poll “expeditiously”.

Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande told reporters that the 13-hour summit in Lusaka had also urged Mugabe to ensure that a possible run-off vote against Tsvangirai be held “in a secure environment”.

“(The SADC leaders) urged the electoral authorities in Zimbabwe that verification and release of results are expeditiously done in accordance with the due process of law,” said Pande.

But the regional summit was delayed for several hours apparently because leaders could not agree on the wording of the final communiqué with some of the leaders said to have opposed referring to the situation in Zimbabwe as a crisis. – ZimOnline.