Presidency Orders Arrest Of Journalists Over ‘Health Scare’ Story

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Men of the Zimbabwean Police force have arrested an editor and senior reported of one of the privately owned Media agencies in the country, NewsDay Newspaper, for ‘undermining’ the President, Robert Mugabe.

The arrested journalist, Wisdom Mudzungairi who was arrested alongside the senior reporter for the news agency, Richard Chidza were incriminated based on a story in which the ews agency claimed the Zimbabwean president was ‘in fresh health scare’.

In the story published by the news agency, NewsDay alleged that the Zimbabwean president was sneaked out of the country on Wednesday owing to his bad health.

The article which quoted an anonymous source stated that the First lady had prior to the president’s departure flown out on Monday to organise a chartered flight for the president who recently clocked 93.

The news came following the confirmation of the president’s exit from the country on a scheduled medical check-up as confirmed by his spokesperson, George Charamba.

Mugabe’spokesperson further noted that the president is expected back in the country on Monday.

Speaking on the arrest of the journalists, Obey Shava, the publisher of the newspaper, Alpha Media Holdings was the first accused, while Mudzungairi and Chidza were second and third accused respectively.

He noted: “The first accused is Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) and the second accused is the editor and the third accused is the journalist. They are accused of breaching section 33 of criminal law codification and reform act, undermining or insulting the office of the president.”

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