A week after the arrest of Zimbabwe Independent weekly newspaper editor, Faith Zaba on allegations of insulting President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the State has charged the publication’s parent company Alpha Media Holdings (AMH).
The company is accused of undermining the authority of or insulting Mnangagwa, through its Muckraker column in a recent edition of the Independent.
Late afternoon on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, detectives from Harare Central Police Station’s Law and Order section recorded a statement from Kholwani Nyathi, the Editor-in-Chief of AMH.
The company’s lawyer, Chris Mhike, who accompanied Nyathi to the police station, confirmed the latest development.
“Lamentably, it is true that the State has instituted criminal proceedings against AMH.
“The initial court appearance of the company’s representative in these fresh legal proceedings has been scheduled for the morning of Thursday July 10, 2025; or soon thereafter,” said Mhike shortly after the recording of statements at the station.
He added: “The company denies all allegations levelled against it by the State, and the details of that denial shall be traversed at the forthcoming court session.”
Zaba’s arrest was met with outrage from local and global media freedom lobby groups.
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The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) called for all charges against her to be dropped.
“Instead of arresting journalists and criminalising the profession, Zimbabwean authorities should be doing everything in their power to protect media freedom and the hard-won constitutionally guaranteed rights of the country’s media professionals,” said WAN-IFRA Press freedom executive director, Andrew Heslop.
“Satire is an essential component of a free press, and public figures --- presidents included --- should accept that their roles expose them to greater levels of public scrutiny.
“A strong, healthy democracy should have confidence in holding a mirror to itself and the actions of its leaders.
“That is a free media’s indispensable role – and Ms. Zaba should be immediately freed to continue doing it.”
The Zimbabwe National Editors Forum and the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists also urged the authorities to stop the targeting of journalists in what they said was a sustained crackdown against independent journalists.
Zaba became the second senior AMH journalist to be arrested this year following the 72-day pre-trial detention of HStv head of news Blessed Mhlanga after his station broadcast Press conferences addressed by expelled Zanu PF central committee member Blessed Geza calling for Mnangagwa’s resignation.
AMH are the publishers of NewsDay, The Standard, Zimbabwe Independent and Southern Eye as well as proprietors of HStv.
