(RSF/IFEX) – In a 25 April 2000 letter to Minister of Home Affairs Dumiso Dabengwa, RSF expressed its concern after a bomb explosion in front of the office of a daily newspaper in Harare. RSF urged the minister to launch an inquiry into this explosion and to find those responsible. “We call on your authority […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 25 April 2000 letter to Minister of Home Affairs Dumiso Dabengwa, RSF expressed its concern after a bomb explosion in front of the office of a daily newspaper in Harare. RSF urged the minister to launch an inquiry into this explosion and to find those responsible. “We call on your authority to ensure that journalists can work freely and safely in the whole country,” added Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general.
According to information gathered by RSF, a bomb shook the premises of “Daily News” on 22 April, the only privately-owned daily newspaper in Zimbabwe. The explosion caused little damage and nobody was injured as the newspaper does not publish on weekends. The bomb was allegedly thrown from a passing car. Geoff Nyarota, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, said he received a letter from an organisation called “The revival of African conscience” which threatened him because of content in “Daily News”. On 23 April, Minister of Information Chen Chimutengwende denied the authorities had a responsibility in the bomb explosion and said that “the blast was done by people who wanted to tarnish Zimbabwe internationally.”
Earlier, on 6 April, Nyasha Nyakunu and Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, editor and photographer with “Daily News”, respectively, were detained in a farmhouse for two hours by Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF, ruling party) youths armed with iron bars. The youths threatened them and confiscated the journalists’ two cameras, identity cards and press cards. They accused them of being “pro-white people” (see IFEX alerts of 18 and 7 April 2000).
