His Excellency President Robert Mugabe
Office of the President
Causeway, Harare
Zimbabwe

Fax: (+ 263 4) 728 799 / 708 820 / 734 644

Vienna, 28 October 2003

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, leading journalists and media executives in over 120 countries, is outraged at the recent arrests of journalists and directors from the independent The Daily News.

According to information provided to IPI, on 25 October, police arrested 18 journalists from The Daily News. Although these journalists were subsequently released, the police are currently holding the chief executive of Associated Newspapers Zimbabwe (ANZ), Sipepa Nkomo, and ANZ directors, Rachel Kupara, Stuart Mattinson and Brian Mutsau. The four ANZ executives were arrested when they voluntarily appeared at the Harare Central Police Station on 27 October.

Aside from these arrests Nkomo’s niece Tulepi Nkomo and ANZ board member and former member of the judiciary Washington Sansole were also arrested over the weekend. Tulepi Nkomo was released after paying a fine while a Bulawayo court ordered the release of Sansole. It is alleged that the arrests of Nkomo and Sansole were initiated because, at the time, police were unable to find Sipepa Nkomo.

The spate of arrests comes after the 24 October decision of a Zimbabwean administrative court ordering the Media and Information Commission (MIC), created under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), to issue a licence to The Daily News by 30 November. The decision, which would allow the newspaper to publish, came after the court found that the MIC was improperly “constituted” when it made its original decision to deny The Daily News a licence.

As a result of the decision, The Daily News published an eight-page edition on 25 October with the headline, “We’re back”. Within hours of the edition reaching the newsstands, police had arrested journalists from the newspaper and raided the home of Nkomo who was not there at the time. The authorities claim the court’s decision does not enable The Daily News to publish and as a result the 25 October publication was in breach of the AIPPA. However, lawyers acting for the newspaper claim the judgement invalidates the law.

With regard to the above, the behaviour of the police is a clear indication that the government is willing to disregard the rule of law and the decisions of its own courts when they are found not to be operating in their favour. Indeed, the extreme lengths that the authorities are prepared to go to is further evidence that the true reason for their behaviour is not to enforce the law but to silence the independent media in Zimbabwe.

By raiding the offices of The Daily News, by arresting the newspaper’s journalists and executives, by failing to accept the decisions of the courts, the government is revealing its own contempt for the rule of law and freedom of the press in Zimbabwe. IPI believes the rule of law and freedom of the press play a fundamental role within any democratic society and that the government must accept these principles and allow the independent media a voice.

Therefore, IPI calls on the Zimbabwean government to ensure that the four ANZ executives are released and to allow The Daily News to publish without threat of legal harassment or police intimidation. In doing so you will be upholding the principles of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director

Background Note:
Zimbabwe was placed on the IPI Watch List on 20 October 2001. In its press release IPI said, “[It] is deeply concerned at attempts to extinguish press freedom in the country against a background of government support for this activity and reluctance to prosecute offenders, restrictions imposed, or contemplated, by the government on the media, and the breakdown of the rule of law.”