HARARE, Feb. 16 (NewsDay Live) — Alpha Media Holdings senior journalist Blessed Mhlanga is set to take international spotlight this week when he addresses the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in Switzerland, bringing renewed attention to the state of human rights and press freedom in Zimbabwe.
Mhlanga will speak on Wednesday during a session titled “Silenced for Reporting: Zimbabwe’s War on the Press,” where he is expected to recount his own experience of persecution and highlight the broader challenges faced by journalists in the southern African country. His appearance comes after he spent more than two months in remand prison last year over his reporting.
The Geneva Summit is a high-profile annual gathering that convenes former political prisoners, dissidents, journalists, legal experts, and human-rights advocates from across the globe to testify about repression, authoritarian abuses, and struggles for fundamental freedoms.
At the 2026 edition, Mhlanga will join a distinguished roster of human-rights defenders from troubled regions worldwide. Confirmed speakers include Masih Alinejad, Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist; Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli, a Venezuelan opposition adviser living in exile; and Marzieh Hamidi, an Afghan-Iranian athlete and women’s rights advocate.
Additional speakers on the programme include Cuban playwright and pro-democracy activist Yúnior García Aguilera; North Korean defector Kim Yumi; Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo López; Russian pro-democracy leader Yulia Navalnaya; Hong Kong activist Chloe Cheung; and Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, known for her on-air protest against state censorship.
Past editions of the summit have featured globally recognised voices, underscoring its stature as a platform for exposing state repression. In 2025, speakers included Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine and former world chess champion and democracy activist Garry Kasparov. Earlier sessions have also hosted activists and survivors from Hong Kong, Tibet, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.
Mhlanga’s own legal ordeal began on February 24, 2025, when he was arrested and charged with “incitement to public violence” under Zimbabwe’s Cyber and Data Protection Act after reporting on a war veteran’s call for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to resign. He spent 71 days in pre-trial detention, was denied bail three times, and was eventually granted bail on May 6, 2025, following sustained pressure from international watchdogs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
By taking the Geneva stage, Mhlanga is expected to turn his personal struggle into a broader indictment of shrinking civic and media space in Zimbabwe, adding a local voice to a global chorus demanding accountability and respect for fundamental freedoms.
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