Bulawayo – A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday found Jeffrey Moyo, a New York Times freelance reporter, guilty of violating immigration laws for allegedly helping foreign journalists gain false accreditation.
He was handed a fine of 200 000 Zimbabwean dollars (around $600) and a two-year suspended sentence.
Moyo, 37, was arrested in May last year on allegations of providing fake media accreditation cards to South Africa-based Times reporters Christina Goldbaum and Joao Silva so they could enter Zimbabwe for a week-long assignment.
With the “evidence before the court, it is clear that the accused may have connived” to fabricate accreditation cards for the Times journalists, said magistrate Mark Dzira.
Moyo’s lawyers said they would appeal the conviction and sentence.
The imposed fine is the maximum allowed for the offence.
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“We do not believe that the highest fine was justified,” defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told reporters.
In February, a regional court in the southwestern city of Bulawayo heard five witnesses for the prosecution, several of them state officials.
The Zimbabwe Media Commission, which is responsible for issuing media accreditation, claimed the foreign journalists had been denied clearance to work in the country and that their names did not appear on the accreditation register.
On Tuesday the Times reported that Moyo obtained press cards for his colleagues from the state regulator, which they used for visas on arrival at Bulawayo airport.
But the visas were cancelled three days later on claims the “accreditation was fraudulent”. Police ordered the two journalists to leave the country.
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Two weeks later Moyo was arrested.
Zimbabwe has a history of thorny relations with the foreign press.
It introduced legislation in the early 2000s barring foreign journalists from working in the country for long periods and requiring them to seek accreditation for every assignment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described Moyo’s conviction as “a monumental travesty of justice”.
It “shows how far press freedom has deteriorated in Zimbabwe under President Emmerson Mnangagwa,” CPJ’s Africa program coordinator Angela Quintal told AFP.
The media watchdog “hopes that a higher court will overturn this unjust conviction on appeal and ensure that journalists can report freely, especially with a general election scheduled for next year,” she said.
At least four other journalists face prosecution in Zimbabwe on unrelated charges, according to the CPJ.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pexels
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