(MISA/IFEX) – It was earlier reported that two journalists from the “The Daily News”, Nyasha Nyakunu and Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, who were detained by youths at a farm on 7 April 2000, had had their two cameras, national identity cards and government-issued press cards confiscated. “The Daily News” has since confirmed that these items have all […]
(MISA/IFEX) – It was earlier reported that two journalists from the “The Daily News”, Nyasha Nyakunu and Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, who were detained by youths at a farm on 7 April 2000, had had their two cameras, national identity cards and government-issued press cards confiscated. “The Daily News” has since confirmed that these items have all been returned to the journalists.
Background Information
A “Daily News” crew, comprising features editor Nyasha Nyakunu, photographer Tsvangirai Mukwazhi and their driver, Shadreck Muchecheni, was detained for two hours by Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) youths outside Harare on 7 April. The youths, armed with iron bars, knobkerries and golf clubs, threatened to kill the “Daily News” crew for allegedly supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and sympathising with white commercial farmers (see IFEX alerts of 24, 10 and 6 March 2000).
The youths confiscated the journalists’ two cameras, national identity cards and their government-issued press cards. The news crew was forced to march to a farmhouse, where the youth leaders took turns questioning them on their motives for being in the area.
The news crew team was set free by the timely arrival of war veterans’ leaders who had come to the farm to address the invaders. The war veterans’ leaders denounced “The Daily News” for being against veterans and ordered the news crew to depart immediately. Their equipment was not handed back. It had earlier been reported in “The Daily News” and the “Zimbabwe Independent” that the police had refused to open a docket on the confiscated cameras, national identity cards and press cards.
