Sunday Mail journos removed from remand

THE Sunday Mail journalists, who were being accused of publishing falsehoods by allegedly implicating a top police officer in the elephants poisoning saga at Hwange National Park, were yesterday removed from remand after the High Court ordered the Magistrates’ Court to stay proceedings of the matter.

Source: Sunday Mail journos removed from remand – NewsDay Zimbabwe September 15, 2016

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

Magistrate Tendai Mahwe said the State would proceed by way of summons after the High Court indicated it would need time and a prescribed record of proceedings of the matter in order to carry out the review.

Editors Mabasa Sasa and Brian Chitemba together with reporter Tinashe Farawo had filed an application seeking review of their case, arguing Mahwe had erred in dismissing their application for discharge.

In dismissing the trio’s application last month, Mahwe said there was need for them to explain the basis upon which they wrote the article in their publication.

But through their lawyer Advocate Fadzai Mahere, Sasa, Chitemba and Farawo argued it was unconstitutional and unlawful for the State to force them to reveal their sources of information, adding it was tantamount to persecuting them for exercising their fundamental right.

Advocate Mahere told the court that every person was entitled to freedom of the media, which included protection of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources of information. She further told the court that during the trial, no State witness was able to dispute that an assistant commissioner of police could have been under investigations, but they just did not know about it.

Sasa, Chitemba and Farawo were arrested following publication of an article on November 1 last year implicating a senior police officer, National Parks rangers and Asians in poaching elephants at Hwange.

The State said the article negatively impacted on Zimbabwe’s economy.