Journalists charged over 'blasphemous' story

Journalists charged over 'blasphemous' story

WETHERELL

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By Staff Reporter
12/01/04
A ZIMBABWE court has charged three journalists with criminal defamation for writing that 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 Z$20,000 (15 pounds) bail 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.

“We shall be putting up a robust defence to any suggestion the story was false,” Wetherell said after his release Monday. “It is the duty of newspapers to hold public officials to account, to subject leaders to scrutiny, and we will continue to do that.

He described conditions in police cells as “unsanitary.”

“I wouldn’t recommend a weekend there for anybody,” he said.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo called the report ”blasphemous” and said the trio faced two-year jail terms. But he did not deny the Boeing 767-200 was diverted to Indonesia and Singapore for more than five days.

Prosecutor Golden Marurutse denied Mugabe personally telephoned the airline to commandeer the plane, as implied by the article. He said the newspaper had a duty to ensure reports were accurate and free from malice.

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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