The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) notes with growing concern a rise in cases of harassment and threats to journalists by both state security and top government and ruling party officials.
The ZCTU is disturbed with the utterances by the ZANU-PF secretary for Information and Publicity, Simon Khaya-Moyo, who “warned” the private media to desist from attacking the party and its leadership, saying those misinforming the public by writing falsehoods will be punished.
Moyo’s utterances comes a few days after reporters Mugove Tafirenyika and Brighton Goko sustained serious injuries after they were brutally assaulted by some Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers while they were covering an anti-government protest held on Friday 29 September 2017.
Another journalist, Kenneth Nyangani, working for the privately-run NewsDay newspaper, was arrested for allegedly writing and publishing a story over the donation of some used undergarments by First Lady Grace Mugabe.
Khaya-Moyo’s utterances will further fuel hatred of private journalists by party hooligans and will endanger journalists’ lives. We demand that government and Zanu PF bigwigs stop the harassment of media workers. We also demand that government guarantees the safety of members of the fourth estate as they will be doing their work.
S. Mutindindi
ACTING SECRETARY-GENERAL
