Lusaka
—“I
have
learnt
that
free
speech,
free
talk,
is
not
free,”
Zimbabwean
journalist
Blessed
Mhlanga
wrote in
a
letter
from
prison,
which
was made
public on
February
28,
his
fourth
day
behind
bars.
Mhlanga,
who
works
with
the
privately
owned
broadcaster
Heart
and
Soul
TV, was arrested on
February
24
and
charged
with
incitement
for
covering
war
veterans
who
called
for
the
resignation
of
President
Emmerson
Mnangagwa
and
opposed
proposals
to
extend
his
term.
If
found
guilty,
he
could
be
jailed
for
up
to
five
years
and fined up
to
US$700
under
the 2021
Cyber
and
Data
Protection
Act.
Mhlanga
remains
in pretrial
detention at
the
capital’s
Harare
Remand
Prison,
an overcrowded facility
with
harsh
conditions
considered
“not
fit
for
animals.”
Chris
Mhike,
the
journalist’s
lawyer,
told
CPJ
that
Mhlanga’s
imprisonment
has
affected
his
health,
with
the
journalist
looking
frail
and
suffering
body
aches.
“There’s
no
running
away
from
the
fact
that
he
has
suffered
terribly
from
this
episode.
His
part-time
studies
are
disrupted,”
Mhike
told
CPJ,
adding,
“after
these
painful
weeks
in
prison,
his
health
has
notably
deteriorated.”
“What
is
happening
is
actually
an
attempt
to
try
and
make
sure
that
we
silence
all
journalists
who
are
doing
their
work,”
said
Perfect
Mswathi
Hlongwane,
secretary-general
of
the
Zimbabwe
Union
of
Journalists,
in
an interview about
Mhlanga’s
detention.
“This
is
bad
for
the
profession,
this
is
bad
for
the
country.”
Sanctions
for
people
who
‘demonize’
the
president
Zanu-PF,
the
ruling
party
since
independence
in
1980,
is
facing
internal
tensions.
The
party
last
year adopted
a
motion to
try
to
amend
the
constitution
to
extend
Mnangagwa’s
time
in
office
beyond
the
2028
completion
of
his
second,
final
term.
Amid
the
intraparty
strife,
government
officials
have
sought
to
tamp
down
on
rhetoric
they
view
as
insufficiently
loyal
to
Mnangagwa,
whether
from
politicians
or
the
media.
Home
Affairs
Minister
Kazembe
Kazembe
recently threatened criminal
sanctions
against
people
who
“insult
and
demonise
the
Office
of
the
President,”
while
Information
Minister
Jenfan
Muswere warned broadcasters
against
advocating
for
the
government’s
overthrow.
A
war
veteran
that
Mhlanga interviewed,
Blessed
Geza,
was
among
Zanu-PF
members
who sharply
opposed the
extension.
Geza
was expelled from
the
party earlier
in
March and
has
been calling
for
protests.
Mnangagwa
says
he
will leave
office at
the
end
of
his
current
term.
In
its
attempt
to
silence
the
press,
the
government
is
employing
the
tried
and
tested
strategies
of
jailing
independent
journalists
and introducing laws to
restrict
freedom
of
expression.
Prominent
journalist
Hopewell
Chin’ono
faced
repeated
harassment
and
was arrested
several
times in
2020
and
2021.
He
was
initially denied
bail during
his
latest
detention,
in
January
2021,
until
Zimbabwe’s
High
Court freed
him after
three
weeks
in
prison.
Journalist
Jeffrey
Moyo,
whose
work
has
appeared
in
The
New
York
Times
and
other
foreign
media,
was
also arrested and
initially
denied
bail
in
2021.
After
spending
more
than
a
year
in
prison,
Moyo
was convicted of
breaking
the
country’s
immigration
laws
and
given
a
two-year
suspended
sentence.
On
March
12,
Muswere announced plans
for
new
social
media
legislation,
citing
the
need
to
regulate
unethical
journalism
and
govern
“ghost
accounts
operated
by
individuals
seeking
to
demonise
their
own
country.”
Muswere
has
also
sponsored
the Broadcasting
Services
Amendment
Bill,
which
the
lower
house
of
parliament,
the
National
Assembly, passed on
March
4.
The
bill,
awaiting
Senate
approval,
would
entrench
Mnangagwa’s
control
over
broadcasting
by
removing requirements that
the
president
consider
recommendations
from
a
parliamentary
committee
in
appointing
Broadcasting
Authority
of
Zimbabwe
board
members.
‘I
feel
unsafe’
Even
when
threats
don’t
come
from
the
government,
failure
to
address press
freedom violations can
leave
journalists
fearful.
Three
days
after
journalist Dumisani
Mawere published
a
February
9
report
on
his local
WhatsApp
group accusing
a
private
security
employee
of
sexual
misconduct
with
a
minor,
two
of
the
company’s
staff
threatened
him
by
phone
before
seeking
him
out
at
his
home
in
the
northern
town
of
Kariba.
When
Mawere
complained
to
the
police,
they
summoned
the
alleged
offenders,
who
returned
to
threaten
the
journalist,
he
said.
“They
charged
at
me,
pointed
fingers
at
me,
clenched
their
fists,
and
issued
direct
death
threats
—
explicitly
reminding
me
that
‘Kariba
is
very
small,’
implying
that
I
could
easily
be
killed,”
Mawere,
a
journalist
with
Kasambabezi
community
radio
station,
told
CPJ,
adding
that
he
was
frustrated
that
the
police
let
the
suspects
go. “Right
now,
I
feel
unsafe
and
vulnerable
in
my
work
as
a
journalist.”
CPJ’s
phone
calls
and
messages
to
national
police
spokesperson
Paul
Nyathi,
National
Prosecuting
Authority
spokesperson
Angelina
Munyeriwa,
and
government
spokesperson
Nick
Mangwana
went
unanswered.
Post
published
in:
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