Barnabas Madzimure and Fortune Mutandiro, two directors of a distribution company for The Zimbabwean, a weekly newspaper published in South Africa and distributed in Zimbabwe, were arrested by police on January 17, 2010.31 The police questioned them for two hours about the operations of the newspaper and then released them. On February 11, 2010, they were charged as accomplices in “publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the state,” in violation of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The charges related to an article headlined “Mnangagwa plots fight back: talk of new splinter group,” published in The Zimbabwean on January 10, 2010. The article discussed alleged infighting within ZANU-PF. Three drivers for the distribution company were also arrested and released after several hours of questioning.32 In mid-May 2009, Webster Shamu, the minister of media, information, and publicity, and George Charamba, the permanent secretary in the ministry, issued a directive that all journalists wishing to report on a June 7, 2009 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit should seek accreditation with the Media and Information Commission, which had been disbanded and replaced by the Zimbabwe Media Commission in January 2008.33 Four freelance journalists—Stanley Gama, Valentine Maponga, Jealous Mawarire, and Stanley Kwenda—challenged the directive in the High Court. On June 5, 2009, the court ordered that the journalists must be allowed to attend and report on the COMESA summit without accreditation.34 Although the journalists presented the court order, state security officials at the COMESA summit refused the journalists entry, demanding proof of accreditation with the ministry of media, information, and publicity.35 On May 11, 2009, police arrested Constantine Chimakure and Vincent Kahiya, editors of The Zimbabwe Independent. Police preliminarily charged the editors with “communicating or publishing falsehoods with the intention of undermining public confidence in law enforcement agents,” in violation of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The charges arose from a story published in The Zimbabwe Independent on May 8, which quoted court records and named state security agents who had allegedly abducted and tortured 43 31 “Distributing Staff charged with publishing falsehoods,” press statement by Wilf Mbanga, editor/publisher of The Zimbabwean, February 11, 2010. 32 Ibid. 33 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act, 2007, art. 3; Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with journalist Stanley Kwenda, February 18, 2010; and with Abigail Gamanya, coordinator, Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe, Harare, February 8, 2010. 34 “Six Month Shadow Report on the Performance of the Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe,” Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM), 2009, p. 45. 35 Ibid. 13 Human Rights Watch | April 2010