Zimbabwe

President Robert Mugabe has said that irresponsible journalists who write blatant lies to “cook up emotions” in the country will be arrested. Mugabe was speaking with the Voice of America (VOA) in New York in a wide-ranging interview. The president also said if the two “Standard” journalists wrote another lie which offended the army and […]

On 13 January 2000, the High Court of Zimbabwe ordered the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to transmit the National Constitutional Assembly’s (NCA) programmes and advertisements within forty-eight hours. High Court Judge Yunus Omerjee granted the order after a hearing in his chambers which lasted about four hours. The NCA applied to the High Court to […]

The following is a 6 January 2000 CPJ news alert: New York, January 6, 2000 — The trial of Sunday Standard journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto has been deferred to July 2000. At a hearing in Harare yesterday, the magistrate remanded the two until July 7, pending the outcome of their constitutional challenge to […]

**Updates IFEX alerts of 30 November and 26 November 1999** (CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is deeply concerned about recent death threats against “Sunday Standard” reporter Ray Choto. The threats began in November, shortly after Choto returned to Zimbabwe after collecting an international press freedom award in Canada, along with his colleague Mark Chavunduka, editor of the […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s draft Constitution, which was recently unveiled by a government-appointed commission, includes a section calling for the creation of a media commission with powers to take disciplinary action against media workers “who are found to have breached any law or code of conduct applicable to them”. Clause 213 of the Draft Constitution states […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Ray Choto of the “Standard” newspaper received yet another death threat on the afternoon of 29 November 1999. Choto told MISA-Zimbabwe that when he got back from lunch, he found a posted letter on his desk. When he opened it, he found another death threat, the second in two weeks. The letter informed […]

(WAN/IFEX) – In a letter to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, WAN has expressed its serious concern at threats allegedly made against journalists Ray Choto, Basildon Peta and Ibbo Mandaza. According to reports, the journalists, all of whom work for independent newspapers in Harare, were threatened in separate incidents. In the case of Choto, a reporter […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The principal director in the Office of the President, Christopher Mushowe, has commenced a defamation suit against the now defunct “Sunday Gazette” for articles which appeared in January 1996. The articles in question alleged that Mushowe used his power and influence to enrol in a master’s degree programme at the University of Zimbabwe. […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – “Sunday Standard” journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto appeared in court in Harare on 4 October 1999 for further remand and review of their bail conditions. The hearing lasted only a few minutes: a further remand hearing was set for 4 January 2000. The two journalists were charged under the Law and Order […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 30 and 10 September, 19 July, 31 and 11 May, 15 March, 24, 12, 11, 10, 9 and 3 February, 29, 27, 25, 22, 21, 18, 15 and 13 January 1999** For immediate release: 4 October 1999 ORDEAL OF TORTURED […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 29 September 1999, the shareholders of the Zimbabwean media group Public Eye Publishing (PEP), publishers of “Horizon” and other magazines, filed for liquidation, citing financial and viability problems. The shareholders had agreed a month earlier to liquidate the company and its workers were subsequently sent on leave pending further decisions by the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is deeply dismayed that journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto of the Harare-based “Sunday Standard” newspaper are to face trial in Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court on 4 October 1999, despite widespread international outrage over their case. **Updates IFEX alerts of 10 September, 19 July, 31 and 11 May, 15 March, 24, 12, 11, […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications has completed working on an information and mass media policy framework that seeks to regulate the operations of the media in Zimbabwe. Permanent Secretary, Willard Chiwewe, announced that the policy framework would be tabled before Cabinet soon, whereafter it would be taken to a stakeholders convention […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a non-governmental body working towards constitutional reform in Zimbabwe, has threatened to re-institute legal proceedings against the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) for refusing to run its advertisements on radio and television. In a letter dated 26 August 1999 to ZBC Director-General Luke Munyawarara, the NCA gave the ZBC […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Lawyers representing “Standard” journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto filed an application in the Supreme Court last week seeking to force the commissioner of police, Augustine Chihuri, to investigate the crimes committed by agents of the state against the journalists. The application cites the commissioner of police and the attorney-general as the first […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 20 August 1999, President Robert Mugabe again attacked the independent press. On this occasion, he added the “Daily News” to his list of enemy publications by saying the newspaper was being used by former Rhodesians to discredit the government and the ruling ZANU-PF party. Mugabe was speaking at the ZANU-PF Women’s League […]