The Sunday Mail
Vukani Madoda – The Sharp Shooter
Sometimes some overzealous police officers try to amaze not just me but many, many citizens of this peace-loving country.
How does an entire security agency endorse the raiding of a newsroom to arrest an editor, an investigations editor and a reporter?
How do they do that without any thought as to the consequences and repercussion of doing so? What is worse, how do they charge them with “publishing false statements prejudicial to the State” when it is actually a poaching orgy that is prejudicing the State of revenues amounting to millions of United States dollars?
Surely, what is the rationale of such a charge?
I never heard of such a prosecution so confused, so strange, outrageous, and so variable. Is it not contemptible that three fine journalists are incarcerated for 48 hours because they refused to reveal their sources?
Let me tell you something about the protection of sources in this noble profession admirably referred to as the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
The protection of sources, sometimes also referred to as the confidentiality of sources or as the reporter’s privilege, is a right accorded to journalists under the laws of our country, as well as under international law.
It prohibits authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source for a story.
In Zimbabwe, Section 61(2) of the Constitution reads: “Every person is entitled to freedom of the media, which freedom includes protection of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources of information.”
That right is based on a recognition that without a strong guarantee of anonymity, many people would be deterred from coming forward and sharing information of public interest with journalists such as the brave trio Mabasa Sasa, Brian Chitemba and Tinashe Farawo who stuck to their guns and remained tight-lipped about their sources, and having to endure a forgettable 48 hours in police cells.
Without the strong guarantee of anonymity, problems such as corruption or crime or poaching might go undetected and unchallenged, to the ultimate detriment of society or as our police would say — to the prejudice of the State.
In spite of such legal protections, the prevalent propensity by our police to arrest, persecute and prosecute journalists (and their sources) provides for the logical assumption that the world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places.
The moment you believe cyanide can poison the pen is the moment you will rudely discover how to be infinitely wiser in the face of ink’s onslaught.
It will teach you to be prudent and stick to sharp shooting a target you are familiar with rather than use your rifle to shoot a heavily armoured tank driven by journalists, and justice and with its large-calibre cannon squarely aimed at you.
Tellingly, the arrest of The Sunday Mail journalists was made on November 2 — the UN Day Against Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.
The UN said in a statement that day that “over the past decade, more than 700 journalists have been killed for bringing news and information to the public.
Worryingly, only one in ten cases committed against media workers over the past decade has led to a conviction. This impunity emboldens the perpetrators of the crimes and at the same time has a chilling effect on society including journalists themselves. Impunity breeds impunity and feeds into a vicious cycle”.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/68/163 at its 68th session in 2013 to proclaim November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
The resolution urged member states to implement definite measures to counter the culture of impunity.
The date was chosen in commemoration of the assassination of two French journalists in Mali on 2 November 2013.
This landmark resolution condemns all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers.
It also urges Member States to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists and media workers, to ensure accountability, bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against journalists and media workers, and ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies.
It further calls upon States to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference.
Zimbabwe is an active member of the UN. President Mugabe is an active participant at the UN General Assembly.
So why does our police force defy what our President and the nation endorsed? What kind of arrogance is it for the police to arrest journalists on trumped up charges on a day against impunity for crime against journalists?
Even when giving bail, that brilliant magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe, had no kind words for the prosecution. He termed the whole fiasco a “mockery of justice” and lampooned the State for struggling to deny the journalists bail after making submissions that “amounted to nothing”.
The fact that the State’s case was so feeble that the court found it unnecessary for the defence to present their counter arguments is a clear sign that cyanide failed to poison the justice system.
Instead of investigating the on-going poaching and poisoning of elephants in Hwange National Park our police force saw it fit to investigate the source of the information rather than use the story to investigate and arrest the perpetrators of poaching and cyanide poisoning.
It is my fervent hope that the police will not arrest me for writing this article – though they may mindlessly take an adventure to do so.
They should know that someone, somewhere, someday will write about it because the pen is mightier than cyanide.
Dubulaizitha!
