(MISA/IFEX) – The trial of three newsmen from the “Standard” has closed in the Harare Magistrate’s Court, with judgement expected to be passed on 16 June 2000. The three, publisher and managing director Clive Wilson, former acting editor Andrew Moyse and reporter Chengetai Zvauya, are facing charges of criminal defamation arising from an article published […]
(MISA/IFEX) – The trial of three newsmen from the “Standard” has closed in the Harare Magistrate’s Court, with judgement expected to be passed on 16 June 2000.
The three, publisher and managing director Clive Wilson, former acting editor Andrew Moyse and reporter Chengetai Zvauya, are facing charges of criminal defamation arising from an article published by the paper in January this year.
During the trial, the defence counsel argued that the state had failed to prove that anyone was defamed by the story. Advocate Erik Morris, representing the three journalists, told the court that Wilson had genuinely believed on reasonable grounds at the time of publication that the story was true. He said Moyse had no hand whatsoever in the publication of the story as the decision to publish was not his. Morris went on to say that in the story, reporter Zvauya did not refer to any person in particular as responsible for the printing of the draft Constitution before results were out, hence no one could claim to have been defamed by the story. Morris added that the accused had apologised in the paper, admitting that they had misinformed the public in the story, and there was thus no basis for the state to continue to press the charges against the trio.
For the State, Morgen Nemadire of the Attorney General’s office argued that the story was not true and was therefore an unlawful publication. Nemadire cited the offence as one of a very serious nature purporting that men of high status were dishonest. In the story, men such as Judge President Justice Chidyausiku and Professor Walter Kamba and others involved in the Constitution-making process were accused of being liars who pretended to be gatherings facts for a Constitution which they knew had been long printed.
Background Information
The three newsmen were arrested on 23 February over the story which appeared on 30 January. The story claimed that the government-sponsored draft Constitution had been printed in September 1999, long before the Constitutional Commission’s outreach programme had completed gathering the people’s opinions. The Constitutional Commission presented the draft Constitution to President Mugabe in November 1999. The story quoted “sources” at the government printers, who confirmed that the batch of the draft Constitution which was printed in November was the same as the one which they had printed in September.
The Constitutional Commission denied the “Standard” story through the same newspaper. A spokesperson dismissed the claim as “criminal lies.”
On 20 February, the “Standard” apologised for the story, which it admitted was “entirely untrue”. Its acting editor, Moyse, also resigned from the paper following publication of the story.
