Zimbabwe tries American journalist

By The Associated Press

06.13.02

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HARARE, Zimbabwe — A lawyer defending an American journalist against Zimbabwe's draconian new media laws questioned today whether the government had the evidence to try her client.

Andrew Meldrum, 50, an American reporting for the British newspaper The Guardian, is accused of publishing false information on alleged political violence in Zimbabwe.

He faces two years in prison should he be found guilty in the Harare magistrate's court under new media laws enforced since March.

Beatrice Mtetwa, Meldrum's lawyer, said prosecutors failed to produce a copy of The Guardian newspaper in which his disputed report allegedly appeared, submitting only photocopies and Internet versions of the report.

Mtetwa also questioned whether Internet data downloaded from a foreign publication came under the jurisdiction of Zimbabwe's media laws, which independent groups have criticized as an effort to suppress criticism of President Robert Mugabe.

Meldrum was arrested last month after reporting that ruling party supporters allegedly killed a woman near the town of Karoi, 120 miles northwest of Harare. The woman's husband reportedly said she had been hacked to death and decapitated in front of her two children.

Police later said the killing never happened and the independent Daily News retracted the story, saying it was tricked by an informant to discredit the paper, which is often critical of the government.

A prosecution witness identified as the woman's sister testified yesterday that she had died of an AIDS-related illness. However, prosecution witnesses said today they did not believe the deceased woman had even existed.

A Zimbabwean journalist, Lloyd Mudiwa, a reporter with The Daily News, the country's only independent daily, is scheduled to appear in court on the same charges as Meldrum on June 20.

Independent human rights groups say at least 57 people, most of them opposition supporters, have died in political violence this year, both before and after Mugabe's disputed victory in March presidential elections.

New media and security laws enforced since the poll have been described as efforts to stifle criticism of the government. Twelve independent journalists have been arrested since March.

Meldrum's trial continues tomorrow.

Update

U.S. journalist acquitted of publishing falsehoods in Zimbabwe
But Andrew Meldrum of Britain's Guardian is ordered to leave the country.  07.15.02