Zimbabwean police have arrested journalists at a state newspaper over a story implicating police officers and parks authorities in the poisoning of at least 60 elephants, a media complaints watchdog said Tuesday.
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The police detained senior freelance journalist Sydney Saize, Bernard Chiketo of The Daily News and Kenneth Nyangani, a correspondent for Newsday, for more than one hour after they apprehended them while covering a demonstration staged by a few MDC-T party supporters outside Rusape Magistrates Court.
The Sunday Mail this week ran a front-page story citing unnamed sources as saying a syndicate that included an unnamed police assistant commissioner, park rangers and foreign nationals from Asia were involved in the cyanide poisoning of elephants.
“The editor and reporters of The Sunday Mail can not be allowed to hide behind the privilege of journalism to peddle falsehoods”, said Charamba.
The article undermined the police’s investigation into poaching, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told journalists in the capital, Harare.
“We therefore appeal to all journalists to verify all sensitive information with a view of writing accurate information”.
Media activists and organisations however, roundly condemned the arrests, pointing it “was wrong for the ZRP to shoot the messenger”.
The police claimed that the journalists published or communicated false statements with the intention or realising that there is a real risk or possibility of adversely affecting the defence or economic interests of Zimbabwe.
Charamba said police had since August this year recovered 70 elephant tusks, 30 kg of ivory, 100 kg of cyanide and arrested eight people linked to poaching.
Scores of elephants have died from poisoning by suspected poachers near Zimbabwe’s main game reserve and near the border with Botswana in recent months.
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Officers from the parks department have been arrested in connection with the incident.
