(MISA/IFEX) – “The Herald” newspaper reports that the government is going to file criminal defamation charges against “The Daily News” and “The Standard” for publishing reports on the state of a civil lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe that is being heard in a United States court. In a statement issued in Harare, the Department of […]
(MISA/IFEX) – “The Herald” newspaper reports that the government is going to file criminal defamation charges against “The Daily News” and “The Standard” for publishing reports on the state of a civil lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe that is being heard in a United States court.
In a statement issued in Harare, the Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet said: “Government is reviewing media laws with a view to bringing to Parliament, before the end of the year, appropriate legislation to bring to a stop once and for all the kind of journalism typified by ‘The Daily News’ and ‘The Standard'”. The statement also said that “the reports were not only false but criminally defamatory. Even worse, they have used the frivolous case to wilfully, maliciously and criminally defame both the office of and person of the President”.
The statement described the reports published in the two newspapers alleging that a default judgement had been issued against President Mugabe in a civil case brought by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Member of Parliament Eveyn Masaiti and three relatives of victims of the June 2000 parliamentary election violence as being malicious. The government has persistently denied that President Mugabe had lost the case through a default judgement.
According to a report in the “The Daily News”, Minister of State for Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo said: “Under the circumstances, government has instructed the attorney general to file criminal defamation charges against the two papers with immediate effect.”
