(MISA/IFEX) – On 22 April 2000, a home-made bomb exploded on the ground floor of Trustee House, a ten-storey building which houses the offices of the “Daily News”. The bomb went off at around 9:15 p.m. (local time) in an art gallery situated directly below the office of the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Geoff Nyarota. No one […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 22 April 2000, a home-made bomb exploded on the ground floor of Trustee House, a ten-storey building which houses the offices of the “Daily News”.
The bomb went off at around 9:15 p.m. (local time) in an art gallery situated directly below the office of the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Geoff Nyarota. No one was injured in the blast but it partially destroyed the gallery and the distribution offices of the “Daily News”. The newspaper’s offices were closed at the time. Police in Harare said they were pursuing a suspect linked to the bombing.
In his first reaction to the attack, Nyarota said he was not at all surprised as he had already received a death threat on Wednesday 19 April. He said the threat came from an organisation calling itself The Revival of African Conscience and was signed by a Ngonidzashe Mutasa.
Part of the letter read that the group was “tired of your daily news about farm invasions and your lack of respect to our dear president. All your effort is to embarrass the President and make him the object useless and harmful (sic) to the nation”.
Meanwhile, speaking at a campaign rally in Bulawayo a day after the bombing, Vice-President Joseph Msika attacked the independent press, including foreign media organisations, saying they were propaganda machines designed to confuse Zimbabweans.
The “Daily News” began publishing in March 1999 and is the only privately-owned daily newspaper in Zimbabwe competing against two state-owned dailies.
