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Persons/Institutions: Toby Harnden, Julian SimmondsViolation: DetainedOn March 31 2005, two British journalists working for the Sunday Telegraph, Toby Harndenand photographer Julian Simmonds, were arrested outside Harare for covering the electionswithout accreditation, an offence punishable by two years imprisonment, a fine or both imprisonmentand a fine.April 14, 2005: Norton magistrate Never Diza acquitted the two on charges of contraveningAIPPA after the pair argued that they were in the country as tourists and not for purposes ofcovering the March 2005 parliamentary elections.ALERTDate: March 10, 2005Persons/Institutions: Pius WakatamaViolation: VictoryOn March 10 2005, the State withdrew charges against Pius Wakatama, former columnist ofthe now closed Daily News newspaper. Wakatama was accused of publishing falsehoods underthe Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.The charge related to a column of April 29, 2002, in which Wakatama commented on thealleged incompetence of the Registrar General’s office concerning the vote counting.ALERTDate: February 25, 2005Persons/Institutions: The Weekly TimesViolation: CensoredOn February 25 2005, the Media and Information Commission (MIC) closed the privatelyowned Weekly Times publication barely a month after its launch, citing “misrepresentationand non-disclosure of material facts by the owners.ALERTDate: February 18, 2005Persons/Institutions: Wilf MbangaViolation: ThreatenedOn February 18 2005, editor and publisher of the London-based The Zimbabwean and foundingChief Executive Officer of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), Wilf Mbanga,was critized by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) chairperson Dr Tafataona Mahosofor producing a donor-funded newspaper which, in his opinion, intends to undermine the existenceof national and sovereign publications.ALERTDate: February 17, 2005Persons/Institutions: Herald reportersViolation: ThreatenedOn February 17 2005, an unnamed policewoman threatened to beat up a news crew from thegovernment –controlled national daily, The Herald. The reporters were covering a traffic accidentin which 14 people were killed.The policewoman had been incensed by an earlier story in which the police was accused ofresponding late to public calls that a man was lying dead at a shopping complex in Harare.ALERTDate: February 14, 2005Persons/Institutions: Jan Raath, Angus Shaw, Brian Latham, Harare-based foreignSo This Is Democracy? 2005-167-Media Institute of Southern Africa