**Updates IFEX alerts of 7 June, 24 and 23 February 2000** (MISA/IFEX) – The three “Standard” journalists charged with criminal defamation over a story headlined “Draft printed ahead of results” have been found guilty. Managing director Clive Wilson, then editor Andy Moyse and reporter Chengetayi Zvauya will be sentenced on Tuesday 20 June 2000. This […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 7 June, 24 and 23 February 2000**
(MISA/IFEX) – The three “Standard” journalists charged with criminal defamation over a story headlined “Draft printed ahead of results” have been found guilty. Managing director Clive Wilson, then editor Andy Moyse and reporter Chengetayi Zvauya will be sentenced on Tuesday 20 June 2000.
This is the second time that journalists in Zimbabwe have been charged with criminal defamation. The first time was in May 1995 when two journalists and the publisher of “The Financial Gazette” were found guilty of criminal defamation. The paper had written a story of an alleged marriage between President Mugabe and his former secretary, Grace Marufu. The newspaper had written that the wedding which took place at State House was presided over by a High Court judge and witnessed by a senior minister. The three were found guilty and were fined. Mugabe and Marufu, not long after that, were wedded.
BACKGROUND:
The three newsmen were arrested on 23 February over the aforementioned story, which appeared on 30 January. The story claimed that the government-sponsored draft Constitution had been printed in September 1999, long before the Constitutional Commission’s outreach programme had completed gathering the people’s opinions. The Constitutional Commission presented the draft Constitution to President Mugabe in November 1999. The story quoted “sources” at the Government Printers, who confirmed that the batch of the draft Constitution which was printed in November was the same as the one which they had printed in September.
