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Zim media crackdown slammed
04/11/2003 11:37 - (SA)
Dhaka, Bangladesh - A media group on Tuesday accused Zimbabwe's government of attacking press freedom in the troubled southern African country.
"Zimbabwe continues flagrantly to breach the Commonwealth principles of freedom of expression," Hassan Shahriar, president of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, said in a statement issued in Dhaka. "Zimbabwean journalists are still deprived of their voice."
President Robert Mugabe's government shut down the country's only independent newspaper, the Daily News, on October 25, in defiance of an Administrative Court ruling authorising the paper to publish.
Media laws passed in January 2002 established a state-appointed media commission and gave it disciplinary powers to withdraw licenses, confiscate equipment and jail journalists for up to two years. Critics say the laws are intended to silence dissent.
Since then, about 40 journalists have been charged and four foreign correspondents expelled.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the 54-nation Commonwealth grouping of Britain and its former colonies after Mugabe's government was accused of intimidation and vote rigging in March 2002 presidential elections.
CJA is a London-based organisation of journalists from the Commonwealth nations. Its current president, Shahriar, is from Bangladesh.
- AP
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