Subhead – Rogue cops to blame
The arrest and detention of two journalists on Monday has been slammed in the strongest terms by Home Affairs minister Giles Mustekwa.
He told The Zimbabwean that he was "deeply disgusted about the arrest" of Zimbabwe Independent newspaper editor Vincent Kahiya and news editor Constantine Chimakure, who were arrested and thrown into filthy police cells at the notorious Harare Central Police Station for overnight detention on charges of allegedly publishing falsehoods and undermining law enforcement agents.
Their crime: reporting information contained in public court documents naming members of a government hit-squad. The alleged false report names security agents involved in the abduction of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and human rights activists last year, including Jestina Mukoko.
Mutsekwa said the journalists’ arrest constituted a serious and contemptuous breach of Article 19 of the power-sharing agreement, which commits MDC and Zanu (PF) to freedom of the press.
The arrest and subsequent detention of the two journalists came as government completed a conference in Kariba on Saturday on how to reform the media in line with the global political agreement.
Lawyer Innocent Chagonda, who also sits on the JOMIC, is representing the two journalists. They are being charged under Section 31 (a) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.
The Act says if one publishes something that is wholly or materially false with the intention of undermining public confidence in the law enforcement agents, prison service of defence forces, they will be guilty of a crime and face up to 20 years in jail.
Chimakure gleaned his information from indictment papers served on 16 of the accused persons who are due to stand trial at the end of June.
"I am certainly very much against journalists getting detained for simply doing their job," Mutsekwa said. "It paints the inclusive government in the worst possible light. I am disappointed."
Mutsekwa blamed "excited elements" in the police for orchestrating the arrest.
"As minister of Home Affairs, I am deeply disgusted," he added.
Journalists in Zimbabwe have roundly condemned the government's obsessive hounding of the two journalists working for one of the few remaining independent Harare-based publications.
"How can you detain people over public documents?" asked journalist Dumisani Muleya. "This demonstrates absolute repressive tendency. It proves that there is nothing changing on the ground. Is this what they mean when they say they are on track? Perhaps this government is well on track on its repressive track. There is absolutely no change."
Foster Dongozi, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, called for the immediate and unconditional release of the two journalists, adding he was seriously concerned about the detention and well-being of colleagues.
"We are actually shocked that at a time when we are making efforts to reform media laws, police take such punitive measures against journalists. We are amazed by this behaviour by the authorities. It makes us wonder if government is serious in engaging media stakeholders or maybe they are trying to buy time."
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe Chapter chairperson Loughty Dube slammed the arrests and called for the immediate dropping of charges against the two.
This is unacceptable, he said. This is a clear indicator that government has not yet changed its hostile attitude towards the press."
Muleya reiterated that police were ordinarily ignorant and alleged an invisible hand that was "malicious and vindictive."
"They are court papers, they are public documents. Someone there is ignorant and malicious," he said, adding that the MDC was acting like "figureheads" in the new government with no authority.
He said it was also curious that a member of the JOMIC had taken up the matter and had been defied by police.
Post published in: News