From the Editor's Desk: Arresting journalists is political harakiri

Obituaries
Readers of this column are accustomed to reading the informed opinion of The Standard editor, Nevanji Madanhire, every Sunday.Since he took over as editor in March last year, Madanhire has consistently penned this column, offering commentary on a variety of matters that affect Zimbabweans in their various spheres of life.

However, today this isn’t the case. As his deputy, I have stepped in to fill the void after his arrest and detention at Rhodesville police station last week.I will start by explaining the sequence of events leading to this unfortunate occurrence which does not bode well for the entire journalism fraternity.As we sat in our Wednesday diary meeting planning news stories for the week, two men found their way into the Alpha Media Holdings  (AMH) reception through deception.

One of them identified himself as “Sekuru Makore”, a relative of The Standard reporter, Patience Nyangove.

Upon being told that Nyangove was in a meeting, Makore left his mobile number at the reception but remained within the vicinity of the building since he harboured sinister motives.

Shortly after the meeting, Nyangove called the number and was delightfully told by her “relative” that he was not far off.

Soon the two men were back at the front office where they told the reporter that they were in no way related to her, but were detectives keen to ask her a few questions at the Harare Central  of the police station.

In less than 15 minutes, the journalist was in an unmarked Mitsubishi vehicle heading to the Law and Order Section of Harare Central Police Station.In the past when detectives arrested The Standard journalists, the process normally took longer but this was a swift operation that left us wondering what on earth was happening.

But we had however received warnings that something unpleasant was about to happen to the journalism fraternity.

Just a few days ago a daily paper had suggested that the persecution of scribes was in the offing, championed by someone with what Shakespeare once described as “vaulting ambition”.

Alarmed by the turn of events, I made a quick call to Nyangove and was told police were not happy with reference she made to Chief Superintendent Crispen Makedenge in connection with the arrest of Jameson Timba, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office.

I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of this since the matter is before the courts.

Before we could fully digest the dramatic turn of events at our offices, the detectives were back again. This time they wanted the editor and also took away the AMH human resources manager, Loud Ramakgapola.

Judging from past experience we knew that the three were in real trouble and the rumoured persecution of journalists had indeed begun. The editor, who, ordinarily, should be concerned about matters that are strategic to the newspaper’s business, spent the day at central police station before being taken to Rhodesville where he endured a nightmarish stay in a dark and dirty cell.

With the winter at its peak, you can imagine the hardship he went through, which had a terrible bearing on his health.

When we visited him on Thursday afternoon, it dawned on me that somebody was abusing his authority by shackling a man for simply practising his profession.

If there were genuine complaints about a story, surely the complainant could have pursued other means besides incarcerating his victim.

These days we have a well-functioning Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Media Commission, through which a complaint could have been lodged. Unhappy with these bodies, the complainant could have chosen to sue the paper.

By locking up journalists it was clear the dark days when former information minister Jonathan Moyo was frothing at the mouth attacking journalists were back.

Flashback to the period between 2000 and 2008. Here journalists were regularly beaten up, harassed, arrested and newspapers closed down.Many journalists lost their livelihoods when this happened.

Others were forced into exile where they took up menial jobs as cleaners or taxi drivers in a bid to raise incomes for their families. These jobs were not in their mind when they enrolled for a journalism studies at Harare Polytechnic, where Tafataona Mahoso was the head of department.

Then Mahoso had not yet joined the notorious Media and Information Commission where he became an active player in the banning of newspapers.The Daily News, which recently returned to the streets, was the major casualty in the crackdown on the free press taken by Mugabe’s government. It had its printing press bombed before being forced to shut down. There were other newspapers, The Tribune and The Weekly Times in Bulawayo which met the same fate.

The closure of newspapers and banning of a private radio station VOP resulted in Zimbabwe being deemed the worst place for one to be a journalist. But the consummation of the Global Political Agreement brought a new lease of life for the media as several newspapers were licensed. The Standard’s sister paper, NewsDay was the first to hit the streets and has been a roaring success.

The establishment of the papers is an obvious bonanza to journalists who were unemployed.

It is at this time when journalists were beginning to think that Zimbabwe was on a path to correct the mistakes of the past regime that The Standard journalists were picked up by police on Wednesday.

Madanhire, Nyangove and Ramakgapola are now out on bail and the way the matter unfolds will be closely watched by journalists, human rights activists and political parties who are alarmed by the way Zimbabwe seems to be sliding back to the era where one would never know whether it was safe to venture out.

All these signs point to one thing — the proposed election which could determine the fate of Mugabe and his protégés who have ruled and abused this country with impunity since Independence.

But Mugabe and his stooges should be warned: harassing journalists at a time when Sadc has taken an uncompromising stance on Zanu PF’s failure to abide by provisions of the GPA amounts to committing political harakiri.