MDC disturbed over the continued persecution of scribes

Press Statement

The MDC-T once again condemns the irrational arrests of two Standard newspaper journalists yesterday on charges of criminal defamation and theft of documents. The MDC-T is concerned by the behaviour of the police in treating and arresting the Editor, Mr Nevanhi Madanhire and reporter, Mr Nqaba Matshazi as if they are common criminals and we call for their immediate release. What is worrying is that the arrests came only a few days after the police had raided and ransacked The Standard newsroom.

As a party we condemn the arrests as they are clear instructions of a Zanu-PF hawk who wants to target and silence independent journalists for exposing his underworld operations.

The MDC-T notes with concern that the continued arrests in the country are only targeted at private media reporters while those writing for the State media have an open approval to do as they wish by going on a campaign of writing entire falsehoods against elected officials who are not from Zanu-PF.

The MDC's position is that freedom for all media practitioners should be guaranteed. Zanu-PF supported by its rogue elements in State security should know that; “the pen is mightier than the sword”.

The MDC-T believes in the free flow of public information. Giving citizens the right to know and to be heard - is a hallmark of a functioning democracy. We therefore condemn the police for using outdated laws in arresting and bullying innocent journalists. The MDC-T believes a law that criminalises journalism and tries to block the free flow of information is an affront to democracy and must be repealed.

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