Torturing the truth

Two crusading journalists face prison and worse. Here's what you can do to help.

The black government of Zimbabwe is using an oppressive law passed by the racist white predecessor regime to muzzle two courageous journalists. It goes without saying that these developments are bad for the people of Zimbabwe. But they are also bad for anyone who cares about human rights and the crucial role the media play in exposing wrongdoing around the world.

Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto were brutally tortured last January for refusing to give up their sources. They now face seven-year prison terms for publishing information "likely to cause public alarm and despondency."

Chavunduka -- who's spending this year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow -- is the editor of the Standard, one of Zimbabwe's few independent newspapers. Choto is the Standard's star investigative reporter. Relying on anonymous sources, Choto reported on January 10 that 23 members of the army had been secretly arrested for planning a coup against President Robert Mugabe. Two days later, Zimbabwean officials demanded that Chavunduka and Choto identify those sources. When they refused, they were tortured: beaten, held under water, shocked through electrodes attached to every part of their bodies.

Following an international outcry, they were released. But because of the government's perversely creative use of the old Law and Order Maintenance Act, used by the former white government to persecute Mugabe and other opposition leaders, they are not out of danger.

What has happened to Chavunduka and Choto is not unusual in the Third World, where journalism continues to be an extremely hazardous occupation. Fortunately for them, their plight has attracted far more than the usual amount of attention. Chavunduka's cause has been taken up by the Nieman Foundation, which, increasingly, is assuming an international profile. Nieman Foundation curator Bill Kovach has written to Mugabe that the accusations against Chavunduka and Choto are inconsistent with a free press -- something that Mugabe himself, Kovach noted, has previously said he supports. The Committee To Protect Journalists has urged Mugabe to drop the charges.

In a recent interview with Nieman Fellow Bill Krueger, Chavunduka talked about the difficulties and rewards of journalism, Zimbabwe style -- about learning that the government was exporting maize during a severe food shortage, about a hushed-up deal to provide cabinet ministers with luxury cars, about Zimbabwean troops being taken prisoner in the Congo.

Despite the government's obvious distress at such stories' finding their way into print, Chavunduka never had any indication that his work had placed him in personal danger -- until last January, when a call came while he was taking his morning bath, telling him to report to army headquarters. Even then, Chavunduka says, he had no idea of what was about to happen to him until it was too late to escape.

"We were being tortured in adjacent rooms, but we could hear each other crying out," Chavunduka says of his and Choto's ordeal. "When they started applying the electricity, you could tell that Ray is now getting the shock treatment. He would scream out. They would go to Ray and beat him up, then come to me and do the same." Asked how he got through the ordeal, Chavunduka replied, "At one time we just asked them, `Why don't you just shoot us?' It was so bad that we just thought, `These guys are going to kill us.' I think another thing that kept me strong, subconsciously, was I knew that what they were doing was illegal. That was a very strong factor."

Indeed, Chavunduka continues to believe that Zimbabwe remains a nation of laws and not of thugs, which is why he is continuing to fight within the system. His ultimate hope is that he and Choto will be cleared, their tormenters will be punished, and he will once again edit his newspaper.

Incredibly, Chavunduka, in an interview with the Phoenix this week, said the experience "has emboldened me." Just this past week, the Standard reported a high police official's admission that he had illegally turned Chavunduka and Choto over to army officials. "That's a good argument for our side," he says. "That was a startling admission to make." He adds that the official's statement will prove valuable in a lawsuit against the government that he and Choto have brought.

The case is now before the Zimbabwean Supreme Court, which may rule that the charges against the two journalists are unconstitutional. If the court fails to act before October 4, however, Chavunduka must return to Zimbabwe for a hearing, although the law states that the actual trial must be delayed until after the court has issued a decision. Chavunduka concedes that his optimism about the rule of law may be misplaced: Mugabe has been making ominous statements about the future of the Supreme Court if it rules in the journalists' favor.

The Phoenix joins with the Nieman Foundation and the Committee To Protect Journalists in urging that the Zimbabwean government drop all charges against Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto. You can make your voice heard as well: send a letter to His Excellency Robert Mugabe; Office of the President; Causeway, Harare; Zimbabwe. Or fax your letter to 011-263-4-728299/708557. Tell Mugabe to live up to the promise he made in 1993, when he said of the press that "it is good for the public to get to know that there is this information which might have been suppressed elsewhere."

To learn more about Chavunduka and Choto's case, visit the Nieman Foundation Web site, at http://www.nieman.harvard.edu. To learn more about the threat to journalists around the world, visit the Committee To Protect Journalists' site, at http://www.cpj.org.

What do you think? Send an e-mail to letters[a]phx.com.