MAY 18, 2005
Posted: May 25, 2005
Frank Chikowore, freelance
HARASSED
Security forces detained Chikowore as he filmed police clearing Harare’s central business district of street vendors, according to a lawyer for the press freedom group MISA-Zimbabwe. He was held overnight without charge.
MISA-Zimbabwe legal officer Wilbert Mandinde said police gave no explanation for the arrest. He told CPJ that Chikowore had a government license to practice journalism, as required by Zimbabwe’s Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), and that he had been detained because he was filming police “harassing innocent people.”
Chikowore had just finished another assignment when he came upon the police sweep and began filming, MISA-Zimbabwe spokesman Nyasha Nyakunu said.
Mandinde said the journalist suffered swelling in his left foot after being manhandled by police. MISA-Zimbabwe reported that police confiscated Chikowore’s video camera and two notebooks.