Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

(MISA/IFEX) – On 19 January 1999, the editor of “MoAfrika” newspaper, Candi Ramainoane, was denied access to a court martial case in which fifty Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) soldiers are being tried for mutiny. Ramainoane told the Media Institute of Lesotho (MILES) that at about 9 a.m. (local time), the time when journalists are permitted […]

(MISA/IFEX) – MISA Zimbabwe is shocked both at the government’s continued defiance of the High Court orders to release the editor of the “Standard” newspaper, Mark Chavunduka, as well as the way the government has now used the judiciary process to trick Chavunduka’s colleague, Ray Choto, into handing himself over to the police. According to […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 21 January 1999, detained journalists Mark Chavunduka and Roy Choto appeared in the Harare High Court for the first time since their arrest. Chavunduka, the editor of the “Standard” newspaper, was arrested by the military on 12 January following the publication of a story reporting on an alleged coup plot against the […]

HASH(0x86b98d4) **Updates IFEX alerts of 21 January, 18 January, 15 January and 13 January 1999** (MISA/IFEX) – The following is a 20 January 1999 MISA press release: CONTINUED DETENTION OF ZIMBABWEAN EDITOR MARK CHAVUNDUKA The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) deplores the continued detention of Mr. Mark Chavunduka, the editor of The Standard newspaper, […]

(MISA/IFEX) – President Salim Amour of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government, has lifted the ban imposed on the two mainland-based privately owned dailies – “Majira” and “Mtanzania”. **Updates IFEX alert of 21 August 1998, 8 February and 5 February 1996** Addressing the nation on the thirty fifth anniversary of the Zanzibar Revolution at Gombani stadium in […]

(MISA/IFEX) – Mark Chavunduka, editor of the Zimbabwe Sunday newspaper “The Standard”, was arrested by Zimbabwean Military Police on 12 January 1999. It is believed that it is in conection with a story his paper ran in its latest edition concerning an alleged coup plot in Zimbabwe. Neither his family, friends or colleagues have knowledge […]

(MISA/IFEX) – The Prime Minister of Namibia, Hage Geingob, has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is deliberately withholding information about Namibia’s involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo from all the media in the country, reports the “Namibian” newspaper. **Updates IFEX alert of 29 December 1998** Geingob made the acknowledgment in a letter to […]

(MISA/IFEX) – On 14 December 1998, the Namibian minister of defence, Erikki Nghimtina, instructed his ministry to withhold any news and information about the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from the “Namibian” newspaper. Several hundred Namibian troops are currently stationed in the DRC and are involved in the conflict in support of […]