Reporters Without Borders expressed outrage today at the arrest of a journalist working for a privately-owned Zimbabwean daily published outside the country and the hospitalisation of the former editor of the now-closed paper The Daily News, after he was beaten in prison, and called for an international campaign to stop the government’s violence.
“The government is stepping up its years-long violent behaviour, including against journalists, under pressure of opposition protests and only international efforts, especially in Africa, can stop the abitrary arrests and abusive treatment,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
Gift Phiri, of the London-based daily The Zimbabwean, was arrested in Harare on 1 April for no apparent reason. He had time to send a text-message to a friend saying he had been arrested and that he thought it was for political reasons. The friend said Phiri had been sought by police since his paper started printing the names of police and politicians involved in recent arrests of opposition figures, human rights activists and journalists.
Phiri was attacked on 16 February last year on his way home in the eastern Harare suburb of Sunningdale by men who accused him of working for the US radio station Voice of America (VOA) and the privately-owned Zimbabwean radio station Voice of People (VOP), which broadcasts from outside the country.
Luke Tamborinyoka, former editor of The Daily News, was taken to hospital on 30 March on the orders of a Harare judge after fainting in court. He was seriously injured in beatings since he was arrested on 28 March in police raids on premises of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) along with 34 party activists. He was also badly beaten by police during an opposition meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds (Harare) on 11 March
