JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 97 ____________________________________________________________________ of the accused. It is very difficult to see why the accused were not all charged with attempted murder. Why would the witnesses lie? The answer is they were trying to influence this court. In the South African Law of Evidence at page 601 para 3, it states that if a litigant gives completely false evidence, then it must be disregarded and an adverse inference must be drawn therefrom. In short the witnesses lied to the court. Therefore I grant the application for discharge. All 10 of the remaining accused are not guilty and acquitted after I have declined to put them on their defence.” During the trial the magistrate and the prosecutor seem to have acted with commendable fairness and professionalism in difficult circumstances. The same cannot, however, be said of the police. It is difficult to see how they could honestly have believed the version of events given to them by the farm invaders, particularly since they had had a report that a farmer was surrounded and found the road to Liston Shields farm blocked by the invaders. Since the trial the magistrate has been posted to Guruve, far from his family. Topic 6 6. JOURNALISTS CHARGED WITH PUBLISHING FALSEHOODS In terms of s 80 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act 152, a journalist is guilty of a criminal offence if he or she falsifies or fabricates information (s 80(1)(a)) or if he or she publishes falsehoods (s 80(1)(b)). A person convicted of this offence is liable to a fine not exceeding $ 100 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years. Since the Act was passed more than a dozen editors and journalists, all of them from the private media, have been charged under s 80. The salient details of some of these cases are as follows: