Feluna Nleya and Jennifer Dube reporters with the privately owned Standard weekly were on 31 April 2010 questioned by police from the Law and Order Section for exposing an alleged massive land scandal involving the Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo and businessperson Philip Chiyangwa.
Detective Inspector Muchada and another officer only named as Kutiwa visited the Standard offices where they also spoke to its editor Nevanji Madanhire and Zimind Publishers group editor-in-chief Vincent Kahiya. This followed publication of the story in the weekly’s edition of 28 March to 3 April 2010 which revealed that a special Harare council committee investigating the allocation of land had recommended that Chiyangwa should be arrested for alleged corruption.
The story was based on a 54-page report titled: Special Investigations Committees report on City of Harare’s Land Sales, Leases and Exchanges from the period October 2004 to December 2009. Nleya and Dube were asked to reveal their sources during the questioning which lasted about an hour.
MISA-Zimbabwe’s National Director Nhlanhla Ngwenga condemned these acts as a betrayal of the government’s sincerity in instituting media reforms as well as commitment to promote and protect media freedom. “It vindicates our position that the only way out is an overhaul of the media legislation.”
The Co-ordinator of the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) Andrew Moyse also said given the fact that the reports were based on a legal council investigation, there was no basis for harassing the journalists.
Background
On 30 March 2010 police questioned freelance journalist Stanley Gama following publication of a related story in the Zimbabwean edition of The Sunday Times which is published in South Africa. The harassment of the journalists comes hard on the heels of statements by the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity Webster Shamu that harassment of journalists should stop.
Source: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
