REPORTERS RELEASED FROM POLICE CUSTODY

UNCLAS HARARE 001070 SIPDIS AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND SCHLACHTER, AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ZI PREL PHUM SUBJECT: REPORTERS RELEASED FROM POLICE CUSTODY ¶1. Two independent "Daily News" reporters, Lloyd Mudiwa and Collin Chiwanza, and a correspondent for the British "Guardian" newspaper, American citizen Andrew Meldrum, were released from police custody on May 2 after they were formally charged under a section of the newly enacted Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The charges stem from the journalists' publication of a story, since discredited, that ZANU-PF supporters had beheaded a 53-year-old woman. ¶2. If found guilty of the charges, each of the three reporters faces a maximum fine of 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars (about 1800 US dollars at the official exchange rate) or up to two years imprisonment. The three are expected to appear in court again on May 3. Lawyers for the journalists will argue that the case should be dismissed because the law under which they were charged is unconstitutional. The case is likely to work its way slowly through Zimbabwe's court system. ¶3. A May 2 news release from the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), condemned the detention of the three journalists, saying "the suffering, humiliation and intimidation they had experienced far outweighed the offense they were alleged to have committed." Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said that the three were not journalists but "common criminals," and hailed their arrest as proof that Zimbabwe respects the rule of law. SULLIVAN