Nieman Fellow Faces Trial In Africa

One of the 24 journalists studying at Harvard on a Nieman fellowship is scheduled to return to his native Zimbabwe later this month to face trial and up to seven years in prison for publishing an article that angered his government.

Mark Chavunduka, who began the year-long program for mid-career journalists this fall, and his colleague Ray Choto were arrested and tortured by members of the Zimbabwean military in January.

In early January, Choto wrote an article in the Zimbabwe Standard--a weekly based in the capital city of Harare--about an attempted coup within the Zimbabwe National Army to overthrow the government. Chavunduka is the Standard's editor.

Both were charged with "publishing information likely to cause public alarm and despondency." The law behind this antiquated charge has since been repealed by the Zimbabwean parliament, although the country's president has not yet signed that repeal into law.

Chavunduka is currently out on bail but says he will return to Zimbabwe for his trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 4. He could be saved by Zimbabwe's Supreme Court, which is considering an appeal claiming that the law under which he was charged is unconstitutional.

The 23 other Nieman fellows have joined a chorus of outrage from humanitarian groups and other governments, sending a letter to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to "express our extreme dismay and disappointment over the unlawful detention, torture and pending trial" of the two journalists.

Arrest, Torture and Trial

Theirs is not the first story of restricted rights and alleged governmental corruption in Zimbabwe since the country gained independence in 1980.

While Mugabe's government came to power promising change and even now is considered one of the most advanced in Africa, it has attracted criticism from other governments for corruption and heavy-handed governance.

"There have been many incidents of torture by police," said Richard Zassissieh, the Zimbabwe country specialist for Amnesty International. "Zimbabwe is a place where the press are struggling to maintain their freedom and [there is] state-sanctioned harassment of journalists."

Chavunduka allegedly became a target of that harassment after his reporter Choto found out about the coup attempt through sources he kept anonymous.

"We could have published the article a week earlier [than we did] but we delayed the article a week to give [the office of the minister of defense] a chance to respond," Chavunduka said.

He said Choto put in calls three to four times a day.

"The minister of defense was supposedly on vacation," Chavunduka said.

The minister of state security was to call the paper back, according to Chavunduka. Finally, after receiving no response from the army or the minister's office, the paper went to press and the article was published on Jan. 10.

"I was alive to the sensitivity of the issue," Chavunduka said. "But I was satisfied...[we had] reliable sources."

The article was damaging to the military because it showed members of the army caught preparing a coup against the government.

On Jan. 11, the minister of defense went on national television and proclaimed the story "totally fabricated," according to Chavunduka.

"When we were looking for a comment, [the minister of defense] was supposed to be on leave, but one day later he was on national television," Chavukunda said.

An official at the Zimbabwean embassy in Washington said the minister of defense admitted that the manner of the arrest was "an error which was not supposed to have happened."

Some junior members of the police handed Chavunduka over to junior members of the military, he said. He added that they should only have detained him for the 48 hours permitted under the Zimbabwean law and interviewed him in the presence of police.

The official, who requested anonymity, said "bureaucratic delays" prevented the journalists from being released earlier.

One week after Chavunduka's arrest, Choto turned himself in.

"They said they would release me [if I gave the names of the sources]," Chavunduka said. "They started off by saying 'Don't you want to see your family?'"

There were several days of pleas and threats of violence, Chavunduka said. Then they began to torture him at a professional torture center and at the military barracks, he said.

The journalists were tortured by beatings with fists and rubber batons to the head, body and feet and by application of electric shocks all over the body, said Sherman Carroll, director of public affairs with the Medical Foundation for the Care and Treatment of Victims of Torture in London. They were also submitted to the "submarine," meaning their heads were "wrapped in plastic bags and then submerged in water until they started suffocating," he said.

After their release six days later, Choto and Chavunduka traveled to London for physical and psychological treatment at the Medical Foundation.

"We confirmed they had been tortured," Carroll said.

Chavunduka's newspaper made an application for his release, and the High Court of Zimbabwe, another judicial body, ruled three times that the military release the editor. But the military defied them, releasing Chavunduka only after six days.

Chavunduka said he thinks a combination of factors finally led to his release--the growing international pressure, the series of orders from the high court and a big march organized on the Saturday immediately after his capture.

Both men were released on bail. On Jan. 22 both journalists, who are being represented by the local Zimbabwean firm Atherstone & Cook, were formally charged. The trial has been continually postponed until the Supreme Court makes its decision.

Both journalists are compelled by their country's law to return for their trial.

They have launched a challenge to the law being used against them, calling it vague and outdated. It dates back to the 1960s when colonial governments were trying to suppress African nationalism, according to Chavunduka, and has probably not been used in 20 years.

"This fight is not just for me. I want this law overturned not just for my and Ray's case," he said. "The law is too wide to be realistic in any civilized constitution. It is draconian."

The high court must rule on this issue before the trial can progress. If it votes in their favor, both journalists will be free, and Chavunduka will be able to continue his studies at Harvard without interruption.

Chavunduka said he expects the October trial date to be further postponed to give the Supreme Court, which rules on all constitutional matters, more time to make its decision.

History of Integrity

Chavunduka has been at the helm of the weekly newspaper since it was founded three years ago and is also a shareholder in the company.

He claimed that the army does not dispute the basic premise of the article--that there was an attempted coup in December 1998. Army officials simply want the names of those who anonymously leaked the information to the press, he said.

"They were not interested in going into the rights and wrongs of the story," Chavunduka said. "They [just] wanted the sources."

Nieman Foundation Curator Bill Kovach said he has no doubts about the integrity of Chavunduka's newspaper or the reliability of its reporting.

"I don't accept that there was anything inaccurate about the article," Kovach said.

The Standard "has a history of independent reporting" which is what angers the government, he added.

The Zimbabwean embassy official said the government does contest the newspaper's facts "to a degree."

But "what they were [really] not pleased with is the manner in which [the newspaper] handled the issue," he said.

The government official said he does not expect the journalists to receive a severe sentence.

"They might be reprimanded as a reminder that at least in the future people should try and check on every fact," he said.

Niemans Lead Outcry

Kovach has written on behalf of the Nieman Foundation to Zimbabwean President Mugabe, urging him to uphold the principles of free speech that he talked about during Kovach's visit to the African nation in 1993.

"Part of what [the fellows] want to do is to make this treatment of journalists in Zimbabwe known to organizations around the world," Kovach said.

When members of the Nieman Foundation chose Chavunduka as a fellow, they knew that he had been arrested and tortured, Kovach said.

Chavunduka and Chotto are suing members of the government for damages from illegal arrest and torture. They are asking for financial compensation of $50,000 and reimbursement for all legal and medical costs.

The case has received much media attention and international support remains strong. Amnesty International has sent numerous letters to Zimbabwe's government.

The Committee to Protect Journalists--of which Kovach is a board member--may send an observer to the trial. It has been aware of the case from the beginning and has already sent letters of protest--but received no responses.

"It's hard to know how much you're own effort contributes," said Claudia A. McElroy, Africa program coordinator for the journalists' committee. "We're cautiously optimistic that that court hearing will be dropped."

She said her committee, which has about 20 members and was established in 1981, will maintain pressure on the government, adding that this is an "exceptionally brutal case."

The committee has formed loose coalitions with other human rights groups.

Most of the Nieman fellows did not know about Chavunduka's history before they came to Harvard a couple of weeks ago, said Lori Olszrewski, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle and another Nieman Fellow this semester.

But last week the fellows held a meeting to decide what to do.

"It is a matter of we don't have many other means to reach the government," Olszrewski said.

Will the international pressure have an effect? The answer is still unclear.

"I think the letters will certainly remind President Mugabe that he came into that office with a great sense of relief and enormous support from around the world," Kovach said.

He added that he hopes the letters will remind Mugabe that he came into office promising more free speech.

"There's no question that he'll recognize in these letters a sense of dismay," Kovach said.