Zimbabwe / Africa

  
Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe addresses party supporters in Gweru, Zimbabwe, on September 1. Police detained a journalist, Kenneth Nyangani, for reporting that Mugabe allegedly donated used underwear and women's nightgowns to ruling party supporters. (AP/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Zimbabwe arrests NewsDay journalist over story on first lady’s underwear donation

New York, October 3, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Zimbabwean authorities to immediately release NewsDay journalist Kenneth Nyangani and drop all charges against him. Nyangani was arrested yesterday and charged with criminal nuisance for reporting that First Lady Grace Mugabe had donated used underwear to supporters of the country’s ruling ZANU-PF party,…

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe speaks to supporters gathered to celebrate his 93rd birthday near Bulawayo, February 25, 2017. (Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo)

Zimbabwean journalists charged with insulting Mugabe

New York, March 6, 2017–Zimbabwean authorities should immediately drop all charges against News Day editor Wisdom Mdzungairi and reporter Richard Chidza, and should cease threatening journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A man carries a street sign in Harare as protesters clash with police on August 26. Journalists have been beaten and detained while covering unrest in Zimbabwe. (Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo)

Journalists caught in crosshairs amid protests and unrest in Zimbabwe

A photograph of freelance journalist Lucy Yasini trying to ward off an attack by police while covering a protest in Harare was circulated on social media last week. A day later, a photograph was shared of two reporters, Obey Manayiti and Robert Tapfumaneyi, in the back of a police truck after their arrest. The incidents…

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CPJ Newsletter: March edition

Landmark conviction in 2000 attack on Colombian journalist A Colombian court on February 26 convicted a former paramilitary fighter in the kidnapping and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. The fighter, Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco, was also ordered to pay a fine of around US$17,500.

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Zimbabwe Constitutional Court Strikes Criminal Defamation Laws

New York, February 3, 2016–Today’s ruling by Zimbabwe’s Supreme Constitutional Court that the country’s criminal defamation laws are unconstitutional is a welcome step toward safeguarding press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

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In Zimbabwe, three journalists investigating elephant poisoning charged with slander

Three journalists from Zimbabwe’s state-owned weekly newspaper Sunday Mail were arrested in the capital, Harare, on November 2, 2015, after the paper published a report about more than 60 elephants being poisoned in Hwange National Park, according to news reports.

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Zimbabwean journalist to appeal jail term over unregistered newspaper

New York, June 30, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to immediately release Zimbabwean journalist Patrick Chitongo who, according to reports, was sentenced to one year in prison on June 23 for publishing an unregistered newspaper.

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In Zimbabwe, business news agency’s offices raided

The telecommunications company Econet Wireless and its affiliated bank, Steward Bank, obtained a court order on March 16, 2015, that compelled the Source, an independent online business news agency, to withdraw two of its stories and allowed police and technology experts to search the premises, news reports said.

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Journalist attacked, detained for recording police in Zimbabwe

Cape Town, South Africa, October 23, 2014–Police and politicians in Zimbabwe should respect the right of journalists to report the news without fear of intimidation or violence, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today after police beat up a journalist in the capital, Harare.

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Zimbabwe police attack photojournalist

Police in the capital, Harare, on August 18, 2014, assaulted and detained a photojournalist from the private daily paper Zimbabwe Mail who was covering a demonstration calling on the government to provide jobs, according to news reports.

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