(MISA/IFEX) – The editor-in-chief of “The Daily News”, Geoff Nyarota, was arrested the night of 14 August 2001 by police of the Law and Order Division. Nyarota was picked up after the newspaper ran a story on farm invasions over the weekend of 11 August. The lead story, which appeared on 14 August, alleges that […]
(MISA/IFEX) – The editor-in-chief of “The Daily News”, Geoff Nyarota, was arrested the night of 14 August 2001 by police of the Law and Order Division. Nyarota was picked up after the newspaper ran a story on farm invasions over the weekend of 11 August.
The lead story, which appeared on 14 August, alleges that police vehicles were used by suspected Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) supporters to loot property worth millions of Zimbabwean dollars from forty farms. A team from “The Daily News” witnessed the looting, which took place between Saturday 11 August and Monday 13 August.
Nyarota was picked up on 14 August at around 11:30 p.m. (local time), and taken to Harare Central Police Station for questioning. The editor, who is still being held, is expected to appear in court this afternoon. MISA was notified that Bill Saidi, deputy editor of “The Daily News”, has also been arrested. The two journalists are being charged under Section 50 of the Law and Order Maintenance Act, which prohibits the publication of false news.
BACKGROUND:
The current wave of violence began the week of 6 August, when twenty-one white farmers in Chinhoyi, Mashonaland West Province, were arrested and charged with public violence after a clash with illegal settlers at Listonshields Farm. On Friday 10 August, the farmers were remanded in custody until 24 August by senior magistrate Godfrey Gwaka. In retaliation, suspected ZANU-PF supporters and so-called war veterans began a looting spree, and at least ten houses have been burned and many more looted. At one farm, eight people tried to stab Ronnie Strathers, aged 71, before other farmers came to his rescue, and at another farm the looters got away with Z$3 million (US$54,545) worth of argicultural chemicals and 5000 litres of diesel. Most of the farmers in the area have been evacuated as the violence escalates.
