ZIMBABWE: COURT CHARGES THREE JOURNALISTS WITH CRIMINAL DEFAMATION AGAINST PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE

Record ID: 648252

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: COURT CHARGES THREE JOURNALISTS WITH CRIMINAL DEFAMATION AGAINST PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE
  • Date: 14th January 2004
  • Summary: (U6) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (JANUARY 12, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF MAGISTRATE'S COURT; MV LAWYER FOR JOURNALISTS LINDA COOK; MV COOK GOING INTO COURT 0.21 2. SLV POLICE CAR ARRIVES WITH THREE ARRESTED JOURNALISTS AT COURT 1.06 3. SOUNDBITE (English) PRESIDENT OF THE ZIMBABWE UNION OF JOURNALISM BRIAN MANGWENDE: "Basically we are concerned about the purge on the media in this country. This has been going on, this type of lawlessness that we have been talking about has been going on for a very long time. Journalists have been arrested, even though they have accreditation. We welcome the magistrate's decision to grant them bail, at which the state had put an exorbitant hundred thousand (Zimbabwe dollars) the magistrate reduced that bail to twenty thousand (Zimbabwe dollars). Anyway let the law take its course but we believe this business must now stop." 1.39 4. SLV POLICE OUTSIDE COURT 1.46 5. SOUNDBITE (English) SOUNDBITE EDITOR OF THE ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT IDEN WETHERELL "President Mugabe is the most senior public official in the country, Air Zimbabwe is a publicly owned corporation, they are both accountable to the people of Zimbabwe. And it is the duty of newspapers to subject leaders to careful scrutiny, that's what we do and that is what we will continue to do. We most certainly stand by the story and any suggestion that that story was false as the state has alleged, we reject. We will be putting up a robust defence. We will show that there has been certainly the use of Air Zimbabwe's planes in a number of instances over the years, and that is a matter of public record, so we certainly stand by our story." 2.36 6. SCU NEWSPAPER CUTTING WITH HEADLINES MUGABE GRABS PLANE FOR FAR EAST HOLIDAY 2.41 7. SCU INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OFFICES 2.45 8. SOUNDBITE (English) DR TAFATAONA MAHOSO, CHAIRMAN OF THE MEDIA COMMISSION: "Air Zimbabwe has complained that we are losing money, that the president is reckless, he commandeers planes on short notice, impulsively in fact, they are saying he is impulsive. That's how he arranges his trips. That's what it means, that is how I read this story. But the president does not plan and his officials do not plan, they are paid for nothing because he goes all the way to Malaysia before he says ah I forgot to commandeer a plane. That is the image that is being projected. Whichever way you cut it, there is something terribly wrong with such a story." 3.22 9. SLV AIR ZIMBABWE PLANE ON RUNWAY 3.28 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HARARE, ZIMBABWE
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVABXANGIKNJE7EI621ZED1B89FM
  • Story Text: A Zimbabwe court has charaged three journalists with
    criminal defamation for saying Preident Robert Mugabe had
    ordered a national airline plane for his personal travel.

    A Zimbabwe court on Monday (January 12, 2004) charged
    three journalists with criminal defamation for writing
    President Robert Mugabe had ordered a plane from the
    national airline for his personal travel.

    Zimbabwe Independent editor Iden Wetherell, news editor
    Vincent Kahiya and senior reporter Dumisani Muleya were
    arrested at the weekend after the paper wrote that Mugabe,
    who is on leave, ordered an Air Zimbabwe plane from Harare
    to ferry him
    from Malaysia to Indonesia, leaving passengers stranded.

    "The facts as laid out by the state were read and all
    three said they were aware of the charges against them.

    They were granted 20,000 bail (Zimbabwe dollars) (24 USD)
    each and remanded to January 29," their lawyer Linda Cook
    told Reuters after the court hearing.

    Formed in the 1990's, the Zimbabwe Independent has like
    other privately owned newspapers been critical of Mugabe's
    government in the face of a deepening political and
    economic crisis widely blamed on its mismanagement.

    Wetherell told reporters outside the courtroom the
    Zimbabwe Independent stood by the story, which the
    government has slammed as "absurd and criminally false".

    "This clumsy attempt to silence us by locking us up for
    48 hours, prosecuting us over a story where much of the
    facts are agreed, will do nothing to silence the voice of
    the Zimbabwe Independent," Wetherell said.

    The government accuses private media houses of carrying
    out a Western-led propaganda campaign against it, in
    retaliation for its seizure of white-owned farms for
    redistribution among landless blacks.

    More than a dozen journalists have been arrested and
    charged under media legislation introduced soon after
    Mugabe's controversial re-election in 2002, which seeks to
    punish the publication of falsehoods with a stiff fine or a
    jail term.

    Mugabe's government denies it has ruined the country
    through skewed policies and argues local and foreign
    opponents have sabotaged the economy in revenge for the
    land reforms.


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