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| author/source:Zim Online (SA) |
| published:Sat 17-Dec-2005 |
| posted on this site:Sat 17-Dec-2005 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| Holding three journalists as "ransom" |
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Harare - Zimbabwe police were by late last night still holding three journalists of the private Voice of the People (VOP) broadcasting company as "ransom" until the director of the company hands himself over to the law enforcement agency, according to the journalists' lawyer. The journalists, Maria Nyanyiwa, Nyasha Bosha and Kundai Mugwanda were arrested earlier on Thursday when police and officials of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) raided the VOP offices in Harare. They are being held at Harare Central police station and are most likely to spend the weekend at the station known for its filthy cells. In an urgent application to the High Court on Friday seeking the journalists' release, their lawyer, Jacob Mafume, said the police had told him that they would not free his clients until VOP director David Masunda turns himself in. "The respondents (police) are holding the applicants as ransom as they have already stated in no uncertain terms that they will only release them after their director hands himself over to the police," Mafume said in a court affidavit. He added: "The respondents have thus acted and continue to act outside the law and look set to continue to do so."
Mafume also said in his court papers that the police officers had indicated during the Thursday raid that they were acting on orders from Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and that they would not let legal niceties obstruct them. "The . . . respondents arrogantly boasted that they were not going to be bogged down by the objections of lawyers, whether lawful or otherwise . . . They said they were doing what they were doing as "Minister akamirira" (the Minister is waiting for a report), giving a hint that they were operating under instruction from above," Mafume said. Several police officers, Mohadi and Attorney General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele are cited as respondents in the application that however appears unlikely to be heard in court before next Monday. It was not possible to get comment on the matter last night from Ndebele, who is the government's chief legal officer, or from Mohadi and police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena. Meanwhile, armed police were maintaining a tight guard on VOP offices barring people access to the office. During the raid on Thursday, the police said they were looking for transmitters and other broadcasting equipment.
Under the government's draconian Broadcasting Act, it is illegal for radio and television firms to broadcast from the country without first obtaining a licence from the BAZ. But VOP does not broadcast from Zimbabwe although it maintains offices and reporters in the country. The station broadcasts into the southern African country using a Radio Netherlands transmitter in the Indian ocean island of Madagascar. VOP, which was once bombed three years ago by unknown people, is one of several foreign-based radio stations set up by Zimbabwean broadcasters unable to broadcast from home because of the stringent conditions under the Broadcasting Act. The crackdown on VOP comes days after a vitriolic attack by government Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya against the privately-owned media which he accused of being paid by Western countries to tarnish the image of President Robert Mugabe and his government. Jokonya threatened to take unspecified but tough measures against the small but vibrant privately-owned media.
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