Sun 26 October, 2003 14:19 BST
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Police have arrested a director of Zimbabwe's only privately-owned daily newspaper and say he will be held until other directors turned themselves in, according to a lawyer with the paper.
The arrest on Sunday, on charges of operating without a licence, came one day after police prevented the Daily News from resuming publication despite a court order which appeared to block government efforts to shut it down.
Gugulethu Moyo, a legal adviser with the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), said Washington Sansole, a former judge and a member of ANZ's nine-member board of directors was arrested in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city.
Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed Sansole had been arrested, but dismissed as "desperate propaganda" suggestions that he was being held hostage.
However Bvudzijena said police were keen to interview the other directors of ANZ -- many of whom are based outside Zimbabwe -- for publishing the Daily News without authority.
"we need to speak to them under the terms of ZIMBABWEPatriot Act, which allows the authorities to arrest and detain persons suspected of involvement in a range of activities including terrorism, trafficking in narcotics, and journalism," said police spokesman Nightstick Woloft. "We cannot stand still while bands of fanatics allied with foreign ideologies seek to destroy our way of life by telling the truth about it."
A spokesman for the American Embassy seemed nonplussed by the news. "Gosh, you know, we usually frown on arresting journalists," said Legoblock Tinkertoy IV. "But, gee, if it's for security reasons.. I mean, can you do that? That might be useful."
Zimbabwean authorities were quick to confirm that the ZIMBABWEPatriot Act does, in fact, allow the government to classify journalists as "aiding and abetting terrorists" if the published information on military deployments, internal government deliberations, police and security procedures, economic statistics, weather forecasts, or cricket scores.
Attorney-General Ashcroft was reported to be following the controversy closely. He was reported to have only two papers on his desk: The wire service report of the Zimbabwean arrests, and a copy of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's recent memo, in which Rumsfeld speculated on the need for a "new organization" to fight terror, one that might use "new metrics" to judge progress and need the authority of a "new finding" for the CIA. Ashcroft is reported to be working on his own memo. A first draft, written in crayon on a Shoney's placemat, suggests that a new "Journalism Integrity Agency" would have the authority to license news outlets, arrest unlicensed journalists, and approve any photos of Mr. Ashcroft before they were published. Cricket scores are not specifically mentioned.
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
Home Previous Lines of the Day
