- Press release from the Southern Africa Journalists Association (SAJA)-
The Southern Africa Journalists Association expressed today its shock at the fact that the directors of Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, are being held in police cells under inhumane conditions for practising their duties.
We reiterate our earlier calls that the international community should immediately work with journalists’ organisations and human rights activists to mount pressure on the Zimbabwe Government to discard the archaic treatment of human beings.
We fully endorse the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s biggest organisation of journalists call for world-wide pressure against Robert Mugabe’s Government in order to make him realise that his behaviour against journalists and other citizens in that country used to happen under the colonial rule.
This is time for civilisation and we want the international community to make that point clear to Mr Mugabe and his cronies.
We question the rationale behind the arrest of Daily News directors - Michel Mattinson, Rachel Kupara, Samuel Nkomo and Brian Mutsau whom we believe are being held in a tiny, unsanitary prison cell and have been denied various facilities.
This happened after another director, Washingtone Sansole had been arrested from his Bulawayo home.
Martin MUSUNKA
SAJA PRESIDENT
Mobile Phone: 00-260-97-820888
