Alert Update
30 September 2003

Former Daily News Editor Charged

Zimbabwean police on Sept 26 charged Francis Mdlongwa, former group Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), with practising as a journalist without official accreditation.

He becomes the 10th journalist who worked for The Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, the ANZ's two news titles shut down by the government on September 12, to be charged under Zimbabwe's tough media law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), in the past week. Section 79 of AIPPA prohibits the practice of journalism without accreditation by the Media and Information Commission.

Police from the law and order section charged Mdlongwa, the ANZ's Editor-in-Chief for practising as a journalist without official, accreditation from March 17 to September 12 2003.

Mdlongwa informed MISA-Zimbabwe that he denied the charges during questioning that lasted 90 minutes. Police, who later released Mdlongwa, said they would proceed with the case-using summons. Mdlongwa, who has resigned from the newspaper group, also commented on several Zimbabwean media reports which claimed he had been offered a job by a South African-based but Nigerian-owned newspaper. "These reports are without any foundation or truth whatsoever and the people peddling them know as much," he said. "No one within and outside Zimbabwe has offered me a job, and to suggest otherwise is to be mischievous."

Background

Check MISA-Zimbabwe alerts of 13,15,16, 17,18 September 2003.

END
Rashweat Mukundu
Research and Information Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
84 McChlery Ave
Eastlea
Box HR 8113
Harare
Zimbabwe
Phone 00 263 4 7761 65
Mobile 00 263 11 602 685
E mail [email protected]