ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe has come under fire for cracking down on independent and foreign media after police detained a correspondent for a British newspaper and the government threatened to prosecute the nation's only private daily.
Peta Thornycroft (57), correspondent for Britain's Daily Telegraph, was arrested on Wednesday in the eastern border town of Chimanimani, and accused of publishing false information.
If convicted, she could face two years in prison.
The Telegraph's foreign editor, Alec Russell, said a lawyer for the newspaper had gone to Chimanimani to see the journalist but was "denied access on the grounds that there was no one with sufficient authority to allow him in".
He said the Telegraph had contacted Britain's Foreign Office to see what it could do to help Ms Thornycroft, who is a Zimbabwean citizen but was born in England. Police in Harare said they had no information about Ms Thornycroft's arrest. She had travelled to Chimanimani, 300 miles east of Harare, to investigate reports of widespread attacks on members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
A colleague in Harare, Ms Edwina Spicer, said Ms Thornycroft "had literally been in Chimanimani for half an hour. She had not even started doing any work".
She was charged with "publishing false statements likely to be prejudicial to state security" and "incitement to public violence" under the country's new security laws, according to the Telegraph.
The newspaper said police officers had told Ms Thornycroft they wanted to contact the information ministry and check if her journalist's credentials were valid.
Zimbabwe's new Public Order and Security Act, passed in January in the run-up to this month's presidential elections, has been condemned by rights groups and the MDC as repressive.
The act outlaws criticism of President Robert Mugabe, requires police permission for public gatherings and gives authorities sweeping powers to detain people without trial.
Press rights watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) urged the international community to take stronger action against Mr Mugabe's government, saying the law was "simply a tool to stifle dissident voices".
Paris-based RSF said it was also concerned by government threats to prosecute Zimbabwe's only independent daily, the Daily News, under the new media law.
"If editor Geoffrey Nyarota is convicted, the paper will become the first victim of the very harsh new press law passed only a few days after President Robert Mugabe's re-election," said Mr Robert Menard, the head of RSF.