ZIMBABWE: A former Northern Ireland correspondent of the Daily Telegraph newspaper and author of a best-selling book on the Troubles could face up to two years in a Zimbabwe jail if convicted of breaching the country's laws on media reporting.
Toby Harnden, author of Bandit Country, a study of IRA activity in south Armagh, and currently chief foreign correspondent of the London-based Sunday Telegraph, has been charged along with his colleague, photographer Julian Simmonds.
The two men pleaded not guilty this week to violating immigration regulations and breaking Zimbabwe's restrictive press laws. They appeared in court at Norton, 25 miles west of the capital Harare. They are accused of reporting on the general election without official accreditation and of overstaying their visas.
Zimbabwe's media law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, requires all journalists in Zimbabwe to register with the government-controlled Media and Information Commission.
"The government's effort to pick and choose the international journalists covering the Zimbabwean election violates the spirit of international law, which affirms the right of all people to seek and receive information regardless of frontiers," the executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Ann Cooper, said in a statement. "Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds must be released immediately and unconditionally and all charges against them dropped."
In court this week, state prosecutor Albert Masama said the men were clearly in Zimbabwe to cover the elections. Defending lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said their passports showed no expiry date had been recorded on their visas and both believed they had been granted the 14 days they had applied for on entry.