After being arrested for allegedly insulting the President of Zimbabwe, an American journalist has been released.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
Martha
O'Donovan was arrested in a dawn raid at her apartment earlier this
month on charges of insulting Zimbabwe's 93-year-old President Robert
Mugabe.
Zimbabwe freed on Thursday a 25-year-old American journalist
charged with subverting President Robert Mugabe on account of an alleged
tweet that described the ageing leader as “selfish and sick”,
according to AFP.
The American journalist identified as Martha O’Donovan had been
charged with attempting to overthrow Mugabe as well as undermining or
insulting the veteran leader, now 93.
Her laptop was seized following a raid at her apartment last Friday
just weeks after the government appointed a cybersecurity minister
tasked with policing social media.
“Ms Martha O’Donovan has been granted $1,000 bail (860 euros)
and ordered to reside at a given address, surrender her passport… and
report twice a week” to detectives, said O’Donovan’s lawyer Obey Shava, speaking outside Harare’s High Court.
Prosecutors say that on October 11, O’Donovan tweeted on her @matigary account: “We are being led by a selfish and sick man.” The tweet was illustrated with a photo showing the Zimbabwean president with a catheter device.
The judge sided with the defence and accepted that the state had failed to justify the reason for remanding her in custody.
O’Donovan works for Harare-based Magamba TV, which describes itself
as a leading producer of cutting-edge political satire and comedy. Its
content is uploaded to YouTube.
Human rights lawyers had said previously that the arrest was linked
to a retweet which did not mention Mugabe by name but referred to a “goblin whose wife and step-son bought a Rolls-Royce”.
Mugabe’s stepson with his wife and first-lady Grace is thought to
have recently imported two of the British luxury cars, according to
local media reports.
The cybersecurity ministry was created in Mugabe’s latest cabinet
shuffle last month and is seen by rights groups as an attempt to clamp
down on social media ahead of next year’s election.
Mugabe has already been named by his ruling ZANU-PF party as its presidential candidate for the 2018 vote.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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