(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the manhunt for Cornelius Nduna, a Zimbabwean reporter for foreign news media outlets, and the 14 February 2005 police raid on the Associated Press (AP) office in Harare, in which Jan Raath, Tsvangirai Mkwazhi and Angus Shaw – all stringers for the AP and other foreign media – were threatened […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the manhunt for Cornelius Nduna, a Zimbabwean reporter for foreign news media outlets, and the 14 February 2005 police raid on the Associated Press (AP) office in Harare, in which Jan Raath, Tsvangirai Mkwazhi and Angus Shaw – all stringers for the AP and other foreign media – were threatened with arrest on spying charges.
“The government has once again shown that it likes to treat journalists as enemies of the state, this time just six weeks before parliamentary elections,” the organisation said. “This paranoid behaviour in which the foreign press is routinely accused of spying for western countries is disgraceful and unacceptable at a time when Zimbabwe should be conforming with the Southern Africa Development Community’s (SADC) democratic standards.”
The manhunt for Nduna, who is a stringer for several foreign newspapers and international news agencies, was launched a week ago by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), Zimbabwe’s secret police. Upon failing to find him at his office, the CIO suspects he may have left the country with two “very sensitive” videotapes that could be dangerous for the government if they were to fall into “enemy” hands, Nduna’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, told RSF.
Nduna reportedly obtained the videotapes from the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) with the help of an employee of the public holding company Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holding (ZBH). Mtetwa said they contained “sensitive” footage from “youth training camps”, where militia groups responsible for the attacks and killings of members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the past three years are reportedly trained. In the past, the militia have also been responsible for burning various publications, including “The Independent”, “The Daily News”, “The Financial Gazette” and “The Standard”, and for preventing their distribution in rural areas.
Meanwhile, during the 14 February raid on the AP offices in Harare, police interrogated the journalists present for two hours. They accused them of “spying” and of being “hostile” toward President Robert Mugabe’s government. The police then attempted to seize satellite communication equipment, which they said could interfere with state security transmissions. However, the arrival of Mtetwa, the journalist’s lawyer, served to calm the tense atmosphere.
The police nonetheless insisted on checking the press accreditation status of Raath and Mkwazhi, who have applied for but not yet received their accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC). Under the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) journalists may be sentenced to up to two years in prison for working without MIC accreditation, but may continue to work if they can provide proof that their application is in process.
Before leaving, the police promised to return to deal with “the spies”, but when they went back on 15 and 16 February, there was no one present at the AP bureau. Mtetwa said her clients are now in a safe place.
