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correspondentsViolation: Bombed (raided)On February 14 2005, police raided the offices of Harare-based foreign correspondents JanRaath, Angus Shaw and Brian Latham, accusing them of spying and working without accreditation.The three were reported to have skipped the country following the raids. However,Raath and Shaw are still in Zimbabwe from where they continue to file their stories.ALERTDate: January 18, 2005Persons/Institutions: Frank ChikoworeViolation: DetainedOn January 18 2005, freelance journalist Frank Chikowore was arrested while covering ademonstration by the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), a militant women’s pressure group.Chikowore was released without charges after being detained at Harare Central Police Station.ALERTDate: January 10, 2005Persons/Institutions: Vincent Kahiya, Dumisani Muleya, Iden Wetherell and ItaiDzamaraViolation: VictoryOn January 10 2005, Zimbabwe Independent journalists Vincent Kahiya, Dumisani Muleya,Iden Wetherell and Itai Dzamara were removed from remand after the State failed to set theirtrial date. The four journalists had been on remand for almost a year on charges of criminallydefaming President Robert Mugabe, following the paper’s publication of a story headlined:‘Mugabe Grabs Plane For Far East Holiday’.ALERTDate: January 07, 2005Persons/Institutions: Frank ChikoworeViolation: LegislationOn January 7 2005, President Robert Mugabe signed the Access to Information and Protectionof Privacy (AIPPA) Amendment Bill into law.Under the Amendment Act is now an offence for unaccredited or suspended journalists topractice without accreditation. Journalists caught on the wrong side of the law now risk a twoyearjail term.ALERTDate: January 05, 2005Persons/Institutions: Weekly TimesViolation: ThreatenedOn January 5 2005, the Media and Information Commission (MIC) threatened to close theWeekly Times for allegedly misleading the Commission on the thrust of its editorial policy.So This Is Democracy? 2005-168-Media Institute of Southern Africa