**Updates IFEX alerts on Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto of 3 April, 31, 23 and 15 March, 1 February, 28 and 7 January 2000, 4 October, 30 and 10 September, 19 July, 31 and 22 May, 25 March, 24, 12, 11, 10, 9 and 3 February, 29, 27, 25, 22, 21, 18, 15 and 13 […]
**Updates IFEX alerts on Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto of 3 April, 31, 23 and 15 March, 1 February, 28 and 7 January 2000, 4 October, 30 and 10 September, 19 July, 31 and 22 May, 25 March, 24, 12, 11, 10, 9 and 3 February, 29, 27, 25, 22, 21, 18, 15 and 13 January 1999**
(MISA/IFEX) – On 21 May 2000, the Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled that part of the Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA) under which two journalists had been charged was unconstitutional, thus effectively freeing them of the charges.
Editor of the “Standard” newspaper, Mark Chavunduka, and senior writer, Ray Choto, brought the application before the Supreme Court after they were charged last year under Section 50 (a) (2) of the LOMA, which states that anybody who publishes a false news story which is likely to cause “fear, alarm or despondency among the public or any section of the public … shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years, unless he satisfies the court that before making, publishing or reproducing as the case may be, the statement … he took reasonable measures to verify the accuracy thereof”. The court decision means the charges will now fall away and the two journalists will no longer be prosecuted.
In another significant High Court ruling, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) was freed from paying legal costs incurred by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) after it took the ZBC to court in January 2000. The costs amounted to Zim$30 000 (approx. USD $782). The latest judgement stemmed from an unopposed application by the ZBC to overturn an earlier ruling ordering the corporation to pay the costs.
BACKGROUND:
The charges against Chavunduka and Choto followed a report carried by the “Standard” in January 1999 which alleged that there had been a conspiracy to overthrow the government within the ranks of the military. The government denied the story, and the two journalists were arrested and held by the military illegally and were also subjected to torture. They were eventually charged in terms of LOMA and had waited until now to know whether they would be prosecuted or not.
With respect to the other case, on 13 January 2000, the High Court of Zimbabwe ordered the ZBC to transmit the NCA’s programmes and advertisements within forty-eight hours. The NCA, a grouping of civic, human rights and church groups as well as opposition parties, had applied to the High Court to force the ZBC to broadcast its programmes after the corporation refused to do so, even after being paid over Z$900 000 (approx. USD $23,468) by the NCA in October 1999. The NCA argued that the ZBC was refusing to air its programmes on political grounds. The initial ruling in January 2000 did not contain an order as to who should meet the legal costs. However, on 8 March, the day the NCA had the court order confirmed, Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza amended the order instructing the ZBC to bear the NCA’s costs. It was this order which was overturned in the latest court ruling.
