BBC linked to equipment seized from SA men

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• US journalist, Briton released on bail

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• Zimbabwe Independent suspends reporter over CIO leak

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By Lindie Whiz

SOME of the broadcasting equipment seized by Zimbabwean police from three South African men last week may belong to the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.

Three South African men were jailed for six months each on Monday after they were intercepted at a police roadblock ferrying the equipment to South Africa.

Britain’s Sky News has admitted it had hired the men to transport the equipment from a warehouse in Bulawayo where it had been since general elections on March 29.

Zimbabwean authorities believe Sky News – which was barred from covering the elections alongside dozens of other foreign TV networks – was broadcasting live from the country using the industrial location as its base.

New Zimbabwe.com has obtained an inventory of the equipment recovered by police, and it includes a US$100, 000 Norsat News Link 3200 and an integrated laptop both bearing the BBC logo.

The BBC has yet to publicly claim any of the equipment, but Sky News, stung by the punitive sentences passed against the South Africans, accepted in a statement that it had hired the men to move the equipment to Johannesburg due to the deteriorating security situation in Zimbabwe.

A magistrate forfeited all the equipment and a vehicle used by the men to the state after no-one came forth to claim ownership.

The seized equipment, most of it bearing the Sky News logo, includes a video camera HDTV (P2-HD) high definition, a microphone, battery, lens and control, battery charger, video camera memory cards, video camera batteries, a wireless microphone for a Sennheiser video camera, and a video lighting kit.

There was also satellite transmission equipment, a laptop, outdoor power supply cables, a test pattern generator labelled ‘Mick Hammond Sky News’, reporter’s ear pieces, a GPS unit, a compass, a test meter and a satellite transmitter unit.

Police also seized a power generator, a spectrum analyser, RF connectors, a video distribution amplifier, a notebook with equipment calibration/set up instructions, Sky News stickers and an LNB 1508 HB Norsat with wave guide connector.

Sky News has come under criticism for failing to provide adequate security guarantees for the men who have complained they were forced to take a direct and well-monitored route to South Africa. Their preferred exit route was via Zimbabwe’s western neighbour, Botswana.

Studyington Madzudzo, the Principal Immigration Officer for Matabeleland said the men -- Bernet Hasani Sono 34, Resemate Boy Chauke 46 and Simon Maodi alias Musimani 38 -- would be deported after serving their sentences.

Sono and Musimani will server a further six weeks in jail for breaking immigration laws.
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