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Reporters Without Borders
Zimbabwe

Source:  http://rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=7217
Or:      http://rsf.fr/print.php3?id_article=7217

18.06.2003



Zimbabwe is one of the most-connected countries in Africa, but in 2000 the government passed a law to monitor e-mail. The open warfare waged by President Robert Mugabe against the independent media and locally-based foreign correspondents led in 2002 to passage of a press law that seriously threatens freedom of expression. It was used to prosecute a journalist who had an article posted on the website of the British daily The Guardian that the government objected to.

More and more Zimbabweans are logging on to the Internet, especially in the dozens of cybercafés that have opened in the capital, Harare, and major towns. But soon they may not be able to look at websites that contain criticism of President Robert Mugabe's iron rule. The government pushed through the Posts and Telecommunications Act in November 2000 which regulated online activity by allowing the security services to monitor phone calls and e-mail. The law obliges ISPs and other operators belonging to the Computer Society of Zimbabwe to supply information to the authorities on request and give police and intelligence officials access to their equipment.

Censorship and intimidation of journalists sharply increased in 2001 and early 2002 for those who dared criticise President Mugabe and reporters from the independent media were frequently arrested and foreign correspondents deported.

At the end of 2001 and during 2002, the government banned most foreign (mainly British) publications but their articles could still be read on their websites. This was the government's argument in prosecuting Andrew Meldrum, local correspondent for the British daily The Guardian, the weekly The Economist and Radio France International (RFI), in June 2002.

It was the first trial of a journalist under the 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Meldrum was accused of "abuse of journalistic privileges" and "publishing falsehoods." He had reported in The Guardian an item carried by the independent Zimbabwean paper The Daily News that said activists of the ruling ZANU-PF party had beheaded a woman in a village in the northwest of the country. A few days later, The Daily News admitted that the incident had not been confirmed and apologised to the ZANU-PF. Two of the paper's journalists, Lloyd Mudiwa and Colin Chiwanza, were arrested on 30 April and Meldrum was picked up the following day.

Since The Guardian newspaper is banned in Zimbabwe, the government accused it of publishing the article in the country through its website. A Harare court cleared Meldrum of all charges on 15 July.

Links :

  *  The Computer Society of Zimbabwe:  http://www.csz.org.zw/

  *  The newspaper The Daily News:  http://www.dailynews.co.zw/


Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without borders has nine national sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.



© Reporters Without Borders 2002

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