Zimbabwe April 2005 |
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| Zimbabwe court charges British journalists, (Sapa-Afp, 2005-04-04):-Two British journalists who were arrested in Zimbabwe last week while covering key parliamentary polls were Monday charged with violating media and immigration laws. The Sunday Telegraph's chief foreign correspondent Toby John Harnden, 37 and photographer Julian Paul Simmonds, 46, were granted bail while awaiting their trial on Tuesday. Harden, 37 and Simmonds, 46, were arrested near a polling station in the small town of Norton, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the capital Harare for interviewing voters during Thursday's ballot. Magistrate Never Diza granted them bail with tight conditions, ordering them to surrender their passports until the trial was over and remain confined in the British consular residence but the state said it would appeal the decision. The two would have to remain in custody until the appeal is lodged. They are accused of working without accreditation, an offence that carries a maximum jail sentence of two years, and for overstaying their seven-day tourist visas they obtained when they crossed into Zimbabwe from Zambia. They have been arrested under the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which has led to the closures of four independent Zimbabwean newspapers, and the arrest of scores of journalists. After it was adopted in March 2002, several foreign journalists were denied accreditation. Harnden told reporters before he appeared before the court that conditions in the holding cells were "uncomfortable, but we have not been badly treated in any way." President Robert Mugabe's party won a crushing victory in last week's parliamentary elections, which was covered by 212 foreign journalists who managed to get accreditation. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |