MEDIA REPORT GOZ DEPORTS ANDREW MELDRUM;

UNCLAS HARARE 000963 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER LONDON FOR GURNEY PARIS FOR NEARY NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT GOZ DEPORTS ANDREW MELDRUM; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "Arrests, deportations: Government running scared" the independent weekly "The Standard" dedicated its May 18 editorial to criticizing the Government of Zimbabwe for deporting Andrew Meldrum, a United States national and Harare-based correspondent of the British newspaper "The Guardian," despite a High Court order preventing the expulsion. Excerpts follow: ¶2. "Zimbabwe has once again shot itself in the foot - and in the full glare of international media, for that matter - by deliberately flouting its own laws and throwing caution to the wind just to allow junior Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and the Department of Immigration to settle old scores. Who would want to invest in a country with a government, which can deport an innocent journalist in total defiance of a court order.? There is no doubt that the government, and Moyo, were highly embarrassed after Meldrum successfully challenged their deportation order in the High Court in July last year. . . The way the government. . .handled the Meldrum affair therefore makes a mockery of Harare's monotonous and tired complaints that Zimbabwe does not deserve the bad press it is attracting overseas. What better way to attract a negative international image can there be than the primitive, amateurish, unlawful and vindictive deportation of an innocent journalist. . .?" ¶3. Comment: By any measure, the GoZ's behavior during the May 16 deportation of Andrew Meldrum was a travesty. Immigration officials suspended due process, lied to Meldrum and his lawyer ("we don't intend to deport you"),lied to Embassy consular officials ("Meldrum is not at the airport"),defied 3 separate High Court orders prohibiting Meldrum's deportation, and denied Embassy officers consular access to Meldrum after he was detained and taken to the airport. As the Standard's editorial points out, the Meldrum deportation seriously undermines any grounds the GoZ may have had to complain about unjustly negative publicity. WHITEHEAD