Zimbabwe to arrest Western "spy" journalists, official says

Mar 16, 2008, 13:50 GMT

Harare/Johannesburg - President Robert Mugabe's government will 'flush out' and arrest Western journalists entering Zimbabwe without official permission to cover upcoming elections, the government's senior media official said Sunday.

'We are aware of attempts to turn journalists into observers, or to smuggle in uninvited observers and security personnel from hostile countries under the guise of the media or think-tanks,' George Charamba, permanent secretary in the ministry of information, said in the state controlled Sunday Mail. 'Those will be flushed out.'

The government last week announced it had excluded observers from any Western country from monitoring the presidential, parliamentary and local government elections on March 29, because, officials said, Western governments believed that 'the only free and fair elections could be won by the opposition.'

Mugabe's victories in the three national elections since 2000 following the emergence of a powerful pro-democracy opposition have been mired in controversy because of violent intimidation and evidence of rigging. Western observers have been barred for the last two elections in 2002 and 2005.

Mugabe, 84, is seeking a further five-year presidential term and faces a major challenge from former labour leader Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and Mugabe's former finance minister, Simba Makoni, who is standing as an independent.

Charamba said about 300 foreign journalists had applied for official accreditation to cover the elections, but 'a team drawn from (the ministries of) information, foreign affairs and the security arms are examining each and every application.'

'We are also aware of journalists from Western countries who have sneaked into the country,' he said. 'Our security personnel are on the spoor.' He warned international media organisations that chose to 'sneak in' their journalists that they were 'exposing their personnel to arrest.'

Lawyers pointed out, however, that the Media and Information Commission (MIC), the state-appointed organisation handling the accreditation of journalists, was dissolved last month by parliament. The body meant to replace it has not been established.

'They have ignored the law,' said media lawyer Derek Matyszak. 'They (the MIC) are purporting to act with laws they don't have. They are acting outside the law.'

The MIC is demanding 1,000 US dollars for foreign journalists for accreditation and 4,200 dollars from local journalists representing foreign media, believed to be the highest charges for media accreditation in the world. 'It's an invalid act,' said Matyszak. 'You could demand the return of the cash.'

Last month the MIC banned local journalist Brian Hungwe for working as a journalist, but he is challenging the banning in court on the grounds that the body does not legally exist and cannot interfere with his right to work as a journalist.

Charamba claimed there was 'a preponderance' of Western media applying for accreditation for the elections which, he said, was 'giving credence to allegations that these countries want to use the media as a monitoring surrogate.'

He claimed that most of the journalists applying were currently covering the strife in Iraq or were from Kenya where 1,500 people have died in post-electoral violence.

'It is as if Zimbabwe is a war about to start,' he said. 'There is a strategy to use images to galvanise international opinion. There is an expectation of blood in the streets which explains the deployment of war correspondents and cameramen. They must gore the screen. It's a way to psych the world against the results.'

Hundreds of foreign journalists have illegally entered Zimbabwe since Mugabe introduce draconian press laws in 2002. Three have been arrested, but two of them were released when a court found the state had no case against them. The third, Time magazine correspondent Alex Perry, was ordered to pay a minor fine.