Outrage as journalist arrested for third time in five weeks

By Alex Bell
02 March 2010

The constant harassment of a freelance photojournalist in Zimbabwe has sparked anger from an international press protection group, after the same journalist was arrested for the third time in five weeks on Monday.

Andrison Shadreck Manyere, an award-winning photojournalist, was hauled away by Prison Service officers while he was filming in court in Harare. According to the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Manyere had filmed the arrival of several men imprisoned since 2007 on allegations of plotting to overthrow the government. The prison guards accused Manyere of taking footage ‘without the permission of the Commissioner of Zimbabwe’s prison service.’

Manyere was questioned by officers of the Law and Order unit of the police and was detained in Harare Central Police Station pending a formal charge. He was eventually released on Tuesday after spending a night behind bars and then paying an ‘admission of guilt’ fine.

“This is the third time in five weeks Manyere has been detained on insubstantial accusations,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “The constant harassment of this photojournalist must cease.”

Beatrice Mtetwa, a human rights lawyer who won a CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2008 and witnessed Manyere’s arrest, told CPJ that several reporters had gathered outside Harare’s Magistrates’ Court as journalists were barred from entering the building with their cameras. After seizing Manyere’s camera, prison guards warned other journalists not to take any pictures or footage of the suspects who were held in leg irons and handcuffs, she said.

On February 24, members of the ruling ZANU PF party abducted Manyere and forced him to delete his footage of their demonstration last week. Previously, on January 18, Manyere spent six hours in Harare Central Police Station after covering a civil society march. Manyere has been legally challenging the constitutionality of his December 2008 arrest that led to pending charges of banditry, insurgency, and terrorism. Manyere resumed work after four months of imprisonment and was fighting to recover camera equipment seized by the police in December 2008.

The ongoing harassment of media officials and the lack of media reform in the country have already seen the CPJ lash out at the unity government. The group detailed in a recent report how despite the promise of media reform made by the unity government, ZANU PF loyalists have continued to harass, detain, and attack journalists. Since the coalition was formed in February last year, there have been arbitrary arrests and detentions of journalists, as well as the imposition of exorbitant fees for visiting foreign journalists and local journalists working for foreign media. According to news reports, foreign correspondents in Zimbabwe were told to pay an application fee of US$10,000 and a further fee of US$22,000 for accreditation and permits. Local journalists working for foreign media organisations were told to pay up to US$4,000 in fees—an amount few Zimbabweans can afford.

A May 2009 conference organised by Minister of Information Webster Shamu was touted as promoting ‘an open, tolerant, and responsible media environment.’ Instead, the government demonstrated its own intolerance. The media conference was boycotted by members of the private press in part over the government’s harassment and detention of freelance photojournalist Andrison Manyere. Then, while the conference was under way, police arrested Zimbabwe Independent Editor Vincent Kahiya and News Editor Constantine Chimakure on charges of ‘publishing falsehoods.’ A Harare magistrate released Kahiya and Chimakure on bail the next day.

Most recently, this month a Mexican journalist was arrested while he was in Masvingo where he was gathering footage for a documentary on the upcoming football World Cup in South Africa. He was released only after the Minister of Tourism’s intervention, despite his having received permission from the Minister himself to be in the country. Meanwhile in January freelance journalist Stanley Kwenda was forced to flee the country after receiving a death threat. The caller, allegedly a police officer, warned Kwenda that he would not survive the weekend if he didn’t leave.