Zim police arrest three reporters

HARARE – Three journalists from an independent radio station have been arrested and their equipment seized during a police raid on their offices in Harare, a rights group said Friday.

Maria Nyanyiwa, Takunda Gwanda and Nyasha Bosha of the Voice of the People radio were arrested on Thursday and were still being held at Harare’s main police station, said Thabani Moyo, spokesman for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an alliance of rights groups. “State security agents armed with a search warrant ransacked the offices of Voice of the People and took every piece of equipment in the offices,” Moyo told AFP.In a statement, the rights group accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of stepping up a campaign of repression.”The government of Zimbabwe has intensified its internal repression and further moves away from the line of democracy and good governance,” the group said.Immigration authorities have over the past two weeks seized the passports of three critics under new measures to punish perceived enemies of the state.Authorities returned the passports of leading independent newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube and prominent opposition official Paul Temba Nyathi on Wednesday but they seized one belonging to trade unionist Raymond Majongwe.Netherlands-based VOP broadcasts into Zimbabwe on shortwave.Its offices were firebombed in August 2002.The shortwave radio station is one of only two broadcasters which have managed to circumvent Zimbabwe’s repressive media laws by using transmitters outside the country to carry their programmes on shortwave.Most of VOP’s programming is in Zimbabwe’s two local languages, Shona and Ndebele, placing it among the few independent media able to reach the large rural population who have no access to urban newspapers.Zimbabwe has four radio stations and one television station all controlled by government.-Nampa-AFP”State security agents armed with a search warrant ransacked the offices of Voice of the People and took every piece of equipment in the offices,” Moyo told AFP.In a statement, the rights group accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of stepping up a campaign of repression.”The government of Zimbabwe has intensified its internal repression and further moves away from the line of democracy and good governance,” the group said.Immigration authorities have over the past two weeks seized the passports of three critics under new measures to punish perceived enemies of the state.Authorities returned the passports of leading independent newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube and prominent opposition official Paul Temba Nyathi on Wednesday but they seized one belonging to trade unionist Raymond Majongwe.Netherlands-based VOP broadcasts into Zimbabwe on shortwave.Its offices were firebombed in August 2002.The shortwave radio station is one of only two broadcasters which have managed to circumvent Zimbabwe’s repressive media laws by using transmitters outside the country to carry their programmes on shortwave.Most of VOP’s programming is in Zimbabwe’s two local languages, Shona and Ndebele, placing it among the few independent media able to reach the large rural population who have no access to urban newspapers.Zimbabwe has four radio stations and one television station all controlled by government.-Nampa-AFP