THE strong rebuke by Information, Media and Broadcasting Services minister on police who arrested two journalists from the Daily News for criminal defamation on Monday was spot-on.
Stanley Gama and Fungisai Kwaramba had been taken in for questioning by Harare police at the instigation of wealthy businessman Kamal Khalfan.
Khalfan’s beef is that the paper published a series of stories that allegedly insinuated he was involved in shady dealings and was a homosexual.
He says the stories where he was not given a chance to give his own side of the story harmed his reputation. Initially Khalfan sued the Daily News for $10 million and the case is still before the courts.
No-one can begrudge him for resorting to the courts for compensation for damage he believes he suffered. This happens regularly in countries that claim to be modern democracies.
However, what is appalling is for people who are well connected to use archaic and draconian pieces of legislation to cause the arrest of journalists for allegedly lying.
Moyo, since his reappointment into the portfolio last year, has consistently made it clear that criminal defamation is no longer consistent with Zimbabwe’s new Constitution adopted last year.
The minister has made it clear that there is no legal basis for the defamation law to remain in our statutes.
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More importantly Moyo points out that police should not be seen as willing tools of the rich and well-connected who will go to any extent to muzzle the media so as to escape public scrutiny.
Such arrests used to be very common before the unity government era — between 2009 and 2013 — where Zanu PF politicians used to intimidate journalists by causing their arrest at every turn.
Despite all the arrests, prosecutors failed to get any convictions, which in itself was an indication that the law enforcement agents had been wasting tax payers’ money.
The stance by Moyo is commendable and it is our hope that his approach this time around would inspire a paradigm shift in all arms of the government. Criminal defamation is not only outdated, but is also draconian.
