Nine Journalists who include Sifelani Tsiko, the Editor, and Chipo Musoko ,working for the news agency were on Wednesday arrested by the police who accused the station of broadcasting illegally .
The nine were on Thursday night released without charges, but the police are still holding on to communication equipment comprising a satellite tool and decoders bought from China which they confiscated during the arrest.
A Harare lawyer, Farai Mushoriwa, is representing the arrested journalists.
“This is not good for the country as it prepares to hold the World Tourism Indaba. It tarnishes the image of the country. Our feeling is that this raises alarm. We project that the trend will increase as we approach the referendum and general elections.
“We are in touch with the African Union, especially the rapporteur on freedom of expression and access to information to alert her on these sad developments,” ZUJ Secretary General, Forster Dongozi told The Zimbabwean on Friday.
Zimbabwe is rated as one of the worst abusers of media freedom globally.
The arrest comes hard on the heels of the launch of a media council, the Zimbabwe Media Council, by government whose mandate is to monitor media outlets.
ATV is a free-to-air TV channel based in the United Kingdom and is owned by Afro Media Company.
It relies on freelance journalists for news. It mainly broadcasts for three hours in the evening and is accessed mainly through Wiztech decoders.
Post published in: News