Journalists arrested & assaulted for covering demo

By Violet Gonda
8 June 2009

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalist reports that two of its members were arrested and assaulted by police for covering a demonstration last Friday.

Chris Mahove, a senior reporter with The Worker– a newspaper run by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions – was arrested while covering a demonstration by the Harare City Council Workers’ Union.

ZUJ President Matthew Takaona said the journalist was immediately surrounded by police officers when he was caught taking pictures of the demonstration and taken to Harare Central Police Station. Mahove managed to call his editor, Ben Madzimure, who was also arrested at the police station while enquiring about his colleague. The two were allegedly assaulted while in detention and had their footage of the demonstration destroyed by the police.

The ZUJ president said: “When he (editor) went to the police station to try and find out why his reporter was arrested he was also taken in and detained. And according to Madzimure they were kicked around – in fact they were assaulted by some police officers and thereafter their camera had everything inside rubbed”.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights intervened and the two were released without charge after spending several hours in police custody. ZUJ condemned the detention of the journalists, who are fully accredited. Takaona said both the reporter and the editor had their press cards and actually showed them to the police officers, but they were still manhandled. He said these kinds of actions show the authorities are still trying to block any coverage of dissatisfaction among the people, despite the new unity government.

The arrests also come in the background of a new ruling Friday, that allows media practitioners to do their work without accreditation, until such a time a legitimate media council is set up to do the accreditation process.

Despite winning this landmark case against the government last Friday the four unaccredited journalists who had taken the government to court over this issue were barred from covering the Comesa Heads of State and Government Summit in Victoria Falls.

The harassment of journalists continues despite assurances by Prime Minister Tsvangirai that the situation has normalized in Zimbabwe. The leader, who is touring overseas countries, told Dutch TV that his main aim for the trip was for the international community to accept Zimbabwe, which has been in isolation for a decade now, as "a normal democratic country" and that he wanted the Western countries to review their position with regards to Zimbabwe.

An observer said: “All I hope is that, for the right reasons, Morgan Tsvangirai is sent back to Zimbabwe with a clear message: Restore human rights, restore law and order, remove charges against political hostages and establish a free press. As soon as that is done, and it can all be done immediately, then the free world will rally to assist financially. Until then, all assistance will be directed at feeding and health care for poor Zimbabweans.”

In the Netherlands Mr. Tsvangirai was told that Zimbabwe must first adopt economic, political and social reforms before getting any additional aid from them.