WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-05-21 Time: 15:42:28 Posted By: Jan
[The truth gets too close to the bone – so now hammer the press until they shut up. Jan]
Harare – Zimbabwean police rearrested and charged two journalists on Friday over a story accusing senior government officials of plotting the murder of a mine executive.
The weekly Standard’s editor Bornwell Chakaodza and reporter Valentine Maponga appeared in court under tough laws prohibiting publication of false statements prejudicial to the state.
Police first detained them on Wednesday after the Sunday paper reported that the family of Leonard Chimimba, late chief executive of Zimbabwe’s leading nickel producer Bindura, had accused senior government officials of plotting his fatal shooting last week.
Chimimba died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head
The men were released without charge after a few hours on Wednesday when police said they wanted to interview more people.
The charge sheet against them on Friday said the Standard “lied in their story that the story had been based on the views given by a named relative of the diseased but whom they had never approached nor interviewed to substantiate the story”.
“The two accused persons negligently published their paper with the intention of inciting or promoting public disorder or public violence,” it added.
Police say Chimimba died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head after he was found lying in a pool of blood next to his vehicle outside his Harare home. A man has since been arrested in connection with what police say was an attempted hijacking.
Some local newspapers have linked Chimimba’s death to the disappearance earlier this year of a large Bindura consignment of nickel and platinum en route to South Africa.
“(The Standard story) implied that the government was covering up and eliminating people who had evidence to the theft,” the state said in its case.
Because of Zimbabwe’s hyper-inflation and sliding dollar the potential Z$100 000 fine they face is worth just $18.75 (about R140).
But a conviction would lend credence to the government’s charge that private media have spearheaded a Western-backed campaign against it over its seizure of white-owned land.
Chakaodza and Maponga were not asked to plead and Harare magistrate Sukai Tongogara granted them Z$50 000 bail and ordered them to return to court on June 8.
Bindura, which produces nickel, copper and cobalt, operates Trojan mine in Bindura town, 80km north-east of Harare, as well as another mine, a smelter and a refinery.
Police have arrested several Standard staffers in the last two years, mainly under harsh media and security laws critics say are aimed at muzzling critics of Mugabe’s government.
The government says the laws are needed to restoring professionalism in journalism as it faces a barrage of criticism from home and abroad over policies like the seizure of white-owned farms and Mugabe’s controversial 2002 re-election.
Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&ar…/p>