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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
2002
198 So This Is Democracy?
Mugabe. Morris Depot is near State
House.
“We were filming Mr. Tsvangirai’s
story of being ordered to report to
Morris Depot to face charges of treason.
As his convoy had passed State
House, I later got a shot of the ‘No traffic
6-6’ sign and then filmed as we
were driving past the State House security
wall along Josiah Tongagara,”
explained Spicer.
Spicer told MISA-Zimbabwe that
she and her colleague did not stop, attempt
to film inside State House or
drive through Chancellor Avenue,
which is closed from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00
a.m. (local time) every day. Spicer and
Cahi drove back past State House after
filming the opposition leader as he
entered the police station.
“At 4:30 p.m., we drove back past
State House. We were not filming, but
we were flagged down by the police
and Presidential Guard and told that I
had violated the law by filming in a
restricted area. I was taken to Harare
Central Police Station. Cahi was also
asked to drive her car to the Central
Police Station,” said Spicer. Both journalists
were informed that they would
be charged.
“Our lawyer, Bryant Elliot, pointed
out to the police officers that according
to the Protected Areas Act, there
has to be a clear public sign indicating
exactly what restrictions are in force
in a ‘restricted area’, and that the act
refers to the taking of photographs ‘on
the premises’ of a restricted area,” said
Spicer.
The two journalists were nevertheless
locked up for the night. On Tuesday
February 26, their other lawyer,
Ray Moyo, took over the case. Spicer
and Cahi were charged with contravention
of Section 5, Subsection 5 of the
Protected Areas Act, Chapter 11.12.,
because they took photographs of State
House.
“In terms of Section 5.5, we had
“failed to comply with the direction as
to movement or conduct in a protected
area,” explained Spicer.
Moyo and Elliot pointed out that no
such directive about how people are
to move around State House were ever
published or gazetted. The senior public
prosecutor also failed to find such
directions.
“In other words, there are no directions
as to how we as journalists should
move or conduct ourselves in this protected
area,” noted Spicer. The senior
public prosecutor subsequently refused
to prosecute the two journalists, and
they were released on February 26 at
1:00 p.m.
ALERT
DATE: 2002-03-12
PERSON(S): Foreign journalists
VIOLATION(S): Threatened
Zimbabwean Minister of Information
and Publicity Jonathan Moyo has
warned foreign journalists operating
illegally in Zimbabwe that they face
jail terms if caught. Moyo was speaking
in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second
largest city, on Friday March 8,
2002.
Minister Moyo, who was addressing
the media, warned journalists who
were denied accreditation to cover the
elections but had entered the country
as tourists that they would be caught
and prosecuted. Moyo added that any
journalist caught working in the country
illegally, “might take a long time
... to go back to their countries.”