Nyarota arrested again

The editor of the Daily News Geoff Nyarota was arrested again; the second time in five weeks, and charged with publishing falsehoods.

The charge was related to the infamous and now disproven “beheaded woman” story published in the Daily News on 23 April 2002.

He pleaded not guilty and was released on $10 000 bail.

Full cable:

Viewing cable 02HARARE1218, DAILY NEWS” EDITOR ARRESTED AND RELEASED

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UNCLAS HARARE 001218

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/PD (COX AND ROBERTSON), AF/S (KRAFT AND

SCHLACHTER), AF/RA (DIPALMA), NSC (FRAZER)

LONDON FOF GURNEY

PARIS FOR NEARY

NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: ZI PREL PHUM

SUBJECT: “DAILY NEWS” EDITOR ARRESTED AND RELEASED

¶1.   Geoff Nyarota, editor of the independent daily

“The Daily News,” was charged on May 20 with publishing

“falsehoods,” a violation of the Access to Information

and Protection of Privacy Act. The charge is related

to the now infamous and disproven “beheaded woman”

story, published in the “Daily News” on April 23, 2002.

¶2.   Nyarota pled not guilty and was released after

paying Z$10,000 (about US$182 at the official exchange

rate) after about 5 hours in police custody. He was

not mistreated.

¶3.   This arrest is Nyarota’s second in 5 weeks. On

April 15 he was charged with publishing “falsehoods”

because of a report in the “Daily News” that there were

discrepancies between the results announced by the

Registrar General and the actual number of votes cast

in the March presidential election.

SULLIVAN

(25 VIEWS)