Threats to Journalists: Zimbabwe

VOA Harare stringer Frank Chikowore regained his freedom on May 2, 2008 after spending more than two weeks in detention at the Harare central police station following his arrest April 15 while covering a general strike in the capital. A high court justice ordered Chikowore’s release on bail. At the time of his arrest, Chikowore was covering a strike called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to pressure authorities to release the results of the March 29 presidential election. Police at first sought to charge Chikowore with violating Zimbabwe’s restrictive media law, but then settled on a charge of “public violence.” Motions in the case are continuing, but no trial date has been set. Lawyers for the journalist will seek to have the charges dropped or dismissed. After his release, Chikowore said he had been interrogated about his reporting for VOA’s Studio 7 broadcasts to Zimbabwe, but he confirmed that he was not physically mistreated. He plans to continue reporting for VOA.
In early March 2007, VOA stringer Peta Thorneycroft was warned by the country’s Ministry of Information not to approach security forces or opposition politicians or she would face unspecified consequences.