His Excellency President Robert Mugabe
Office of the President
Causeway, Harare
Zimbabwe
Fax: (+ 263 4) 728 799 / 708 820 / 734 644
Vienna, 9 May 2003
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, is deeply concerned about renewed attempts by the government of Zimbabwe to harass, intimidate and possibly deport Andrew Meldrum, a correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian.
On the night of 7 May, a group of men claiming to be immigration officers made an unannounced visit to the home of Andrew Meldrum in Harare, demanding to interview him. Upon arrival, the officials refused to show any form of identification, or give any legitimate reason as to why the visit was made. According to Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer for Meldrum, “They said they wanted to interview him and I offered to take him to them in the morning but they declined.” She went on to say, “There was room to suspect that the five officers who came to Meldrum’s home in five vehicles, including a van with shaded windows, had a ‘foul play’ motive.”
IPI would like to stress that Andrew Meldrum, a resident in Zimbabwe for 22 years, enjoys legal protection due to a High Court order issued in July of last year. The protection was issued following the clearance of all charges brought against him under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Meldrum was charged with publishing an article alleging that government supporters decapitated a woman in front of her children because of her affiliation to the Zimbabwean political opposition. The story later turned out to be false.
The recent events that took place at Meldrum’s home raise great concern as to why these apparent threats recur. Immigration officials appeared at Meldrum’s house just after he had filed a report on the hardships of Harare’s residents.
Aware of the fate of many journalists in Zimbabwe who have been taken at ‘night’ to be interviewed and suffered beatings and torture in jail, Meldrum is staying at an undisclosed location, and has refused to report to authorities unless the Zimbabwean government follows proper legal procedures, which require that they state their enquiry upfront.
IPI regards the harassment and intimidation attempts against Meldrum as gross violations of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
Therefore, IPI calls upon Your Excellency to ensure that these acts are halted immediately and unconditionally, and that any complaints against media content are resolved through the use of civil litigation only. Furthermore, we call upon you to issue a public statement expressly guaranteeing the safety of Meldrum. We also urge you to ensure that journalists in Zimbabwe are allowed to carry out their profession safely and without further harassment.
We thank you for your attention.
Johann P. Fritz
Director
