Police Seeks to Arrest Independent Zimbabwe Journalists

BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE AND BERTHA SHOKO

AS the Kariba media stakeholders' conference, convened to draw up a roadmap for reforms in the sector, closed this weekend, officers from the Police Law and Order Section swooped on the offices of the Zimbabwe Independent seeking to arrest its Editor and News Editor.

The officers, acting on the orders of Detective Chief Inspector Ntini, said they had been sent to arrest Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure, Editor and News Editor respectively, over a story published on Friday naming Central Intelligence Organisation officers and police officers who were allegedly involved in the abduction of human rights and MDC activists in November last year.

Three officers - Inspectors Mukwaira (030805H), Justein (045073R), and Kambizi (045121T) told Zimind Group Chief Executive Officer Raphael Khumalo they had been sent to arrest Kahiya and Chimakure. Zimbabwe Independent staff do not work on Saturdays.

Ntini told Khumalo the two were wanted for questioning for publishing the names of the officers behind abductions of MDC and human rights activists last year.

In his conversation with Ntini over the phone Khumalo defended the paper's position saying the story was based on court records and that there was no basis for seeking Kahiya and Chimakure's arrest.

The information had been supplied by the Attorney-General's office as part of the notices of indictment for trial served on the MDC and civic activists and was therefore in the public domain.

Khumalo told Ntini the company would not hesitate to expose such continued harassment of the media to show the world that such violations are continuing even under the new political dispensation.

"The attempt to arrest Kahiya and Chimakure amounts to harassment," Khumalo said,"at a time when the government is holding a media reform conference to put an end to this sort of thing. The episode shows there has been no change in the role of the police."

The Kariba conference, part of a government charm offensive, began on Thursday but was poorly attended after many journalists and media organisations boycotted the event in protest against the detention of journalist, Shadreck Andrisson Manyere.

Journalists grouped under the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe stayed away from the meeting because Manyere, who is facing banditry and terrorism charges, had not been released from prison.

The journalists said it was impossible for them to attend a conference when one of their own was under detention using the same repressive laws that are meant to be under discussion.

They were also protesting against the inclusion of what they referred to as "media hangmen" on the programme.

Among those lined up to speak were former chairman of the Media and Information Commission Tafataona Mahoso and former information minister Jonathan Moyo, fingered as the brains behind the notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act. But Moyo did not attend.National chairman of the Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe Chapter - Loughty Dube said media boycotted the event because government had reneged on its promise to release Manyere as previously agreed.

Dube said the Deputy Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Jameson Timba had assured them when they met last Tuesday that Manyere would be released the following day.

"We felt that we could not go and negotiate when our members are being persecuted," said Dube. "We are not against the media reform process but what we want is a reformed media environment."

He said journalists who attended the conference went to Kariba in their individual capacities. Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president Matthew Takaona was among those who attended the conference.

Takaona said while ZUJ does not condone the arrest of journalists by government, it was necessary for media practitioners to attend the conference.

"If journalists had not come here completely, it was going to be a disaster in terms of the recommendations that are going to come out," he said.

Other journalists who attended the meeting were Financial Gazette Editor Hama Saburi, Cris Chinaka of Reuters, media consultant Bornwell Chakaodza and journalist-cum-politician Kindness Paradza.

The conference recommended that Aippa be replaced with a Freedom of Information Act and a Media Practitioners' Registration Act which will make registration of journalists a formality.

It also recommended that the Zimbabwe Media Commission be constituted as soon as possible. The commission should be a transitional body, it was said, which when the constitutional reform process is started will give way to self-regulation in the profession.

The conference said government must support self-regulation, foreign investors should only be able to take up 49% in local media, criminal defamation should be repealed, cross-ownership of media disallowed and government should assist in the formation of a National Employment Council (NEC) for journalists.

It was also suggested that the ZBC board be appointed by Parliament to make it a fully public broadcaster.

No foreign investors in community radio stations should be permitted but donations would be acceptable and the President and the Prime Minister would not be "insulted".

Last week's re-detention of Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko and Manyere's continued incarceration triggered the initial move to boycott the conference.

Although Mukoko was released last Wednesday along with other political detainees, Manyere remained detained along with Tsvangirai's former personal assistant Gandhi Mudzingwa and MDC director of security Chris Dhlamini.

BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE AND BERTHA SHOKO