His Excellency Robert Mugabe
President of Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe

10 April 2008

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to protest against press freedom violations during the recent elections, including the jailing of two foreign journalists.

Five journalists were arrested on 3 April in a police raid on the York Lodge, a Harare hotel used by several foreign reporters covering last week’s elections. Three of them were later released, but two, New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak and British freelance journalist Stephen Bevan, were held until 7 April when they were released on bail.

Mr Bearak and his colleague are accused of working without accreditation in violation of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act 2002, under which journalists can be sentenced to up to two years in prison. The two journalists were held for four days despite an order to release them from the attorney general’s office.

The government has banned most foreign media from covering the general elections and, domestically, only the government-controlled Herald daily is allowed to publish. No independent Zimbabwean radio or television stations are authorised to operate.

We respectfully remind you that the jailing of journalists and suppression of the independent media constitutes a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’

We respectfully call on you to ensure that all charges against Mr Bearak and his colleague are immediately dropped. We urge you to end the state intimidation of the independent media and to permit domestic and foreign journalists to exercise their right to inform the Zimbabwean and international public of events in your country.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.