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Friday, July 19, 2002 - Web posted at 11:55:19 am GMT

HARARE - Zimbabwe's High Court suspended a government deportation order against an American journalist on Wednesday in a temporary reprieve for the country's embattled independent media.

The High Court said Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent of Britain's Guardian newspaper, had the right to appeal to the highest court in the country to argue that his rights were violated by the deportation order.

Meldrum was acquitted on Monday of publishing a false story under Zimbabwe's harsh new media laws, but President Robert Mugabe's government ordered his expulsion.

"I am satisfied that the raising of the constitutional rights of the applicant is not frivolous ... and I therefore refer it to the Supreme Court," Justice Anele Matika said in his ruling.

Meldrum, a 50-year-old native of Ohio who has lived in Zimbabwe for 22 years, was the first of a dozen journalists accused of publishing falsehoods to go on trial.

"I'm delighted that the High Court has ruled that as a permanent resident I have the same rights as those of a citizen and that those rights cannot be taken away at the stroke of a pen," Meldrum told reporters outside the court.

Meldrum was accused of reproducing a story first published in Zimbabwe's privately owned Daily News saying that Mugabe's militant supporters had beheaded a woman this year.

But a Harare magistrate ruled that Meldrum had not originated the story and had tried to verify it. His acquittal spared him a fine and up to two years in jail.

In an editorial on Wednesday, the Daily News said the acquittal was a heavy blow to the government's drive to muzzle the private press.

But the newspaper said it was too early to declare victory for press freedom because the Mugabe government had a history of ignoring the judiciary.

The Guardian newspaper welcomed the suspension of the deportation of their correspondent.

"We welcome the decision by the court to suspend the deportation order ...We now hope the Supreme Court will overturn the order altogether," the Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger said in a statement.

But Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo defended the expulsion order in an affidavit in court on Wednesday, saying it was linked to national interest and state security.

"The applicant is deemed to be an undesirable inhabitant because among other reasons he was publishing stories...which were intended to tarnish the image of the country," Nkomo said.

Government lawyer Yvonne Dondo accused Meldrum of trying to outstay his welcome.

"An application to the Supreme Court would be a frivolous attempt to buy time for the applicant to stay in this country beyond his welcome," Dondo said.

Critics say new laws that penalise false stories as an "abuse of journalistic privilege" are designed to curb press freedom.

The government says they are aimed at introducing "ethical behaviour" in the media. - Nampa-Reuters

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