MISA- Zimbabwe Alert
14 April 2011
Private newspaper readers threatened
Vendors in Harare’s high density suburb of Mbare were on 12 March 2011 reportedly threatened with eviction from their market stalls by suspected Zanu PF youths if and when they are seen reading copies of the private daily newspaper, NewsDay.
According to NewsDay the threats were against stallholders suspected to be supporters of the MDC-T.
Brian Mangwende, editor of NewsDay, condemned the threats and urged the police to bring the culprits to book.
“The religion of doom intolerant to freedom of speech and free flow of information should not be allowed space in a democratic society such as ours, but condemned to the dungeon,” Mangwende said.
MISA- Zimbabwe urges political parties to reign their supporters as well as take all the necessary steps towards the creation of an environment that promotes and fosters freedom of expression and freedom of choice in accessing diverse views and opinions from alternative sources of information as offered by NewsDay and any other newspaper publications.
Background
On 2 March 2011 NewsDay copies were torn in Harare by a group of suspected Zanu PF Youths who accused the paper of being anti-Zanu PF and anti- government on their way to an anti- sanctions campaign launched by President Robert Mugabe in Harare.
Cases of similar harassment and threats against the newspaper’s vendors were also reported during the month of February 2011.
End
For any questions, queries or comments, please contact:
Nyasha Nyakunu
Senior Programmes Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
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