Zimbabwe puts New York Times freelancer on trial

Harare, Jan. 12, 2022

A freelance reporter working for the New York Times in Zimbabwe will appear in court on Wednesday, his lawyer and the newspaper said, in a case critics say illustrates the authoritarian nature of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.

Jeffrey Moyo, a 37-year-old Zimbabwean, spent three weeks in jail last year accused of obtaining fake accreditation documents for two of the U.S. newspaper’s journalists on a visit.

The New York Times said the charges were baseless and that a Zimbabwe Media Commission official had issued him papers for Christina Goldbaum and Joao Silva.

Both Goldbaum and Silva were expelled.

“It was a nasty experience, sleeping on the concrete floor and having no contact with my family,” Moyo told Reuters, adding: “It was terrible, but I’m optimistic that things will go well.”

Officials were not immediately available to comment on the trial due to take place at a court in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-biggest city.

But a spokesperson last year accused Moyo of paying a bribe to break immigration laws.

The government of Mnangagwa, who replaced long-serving autocrat Robert Mugabe in a 2017 coup, has testy relations with non-state media.

Another prominent reporter, Hopewell Chin’ono, who is critical of the government, has been arrested three times.

“The state has a very weak case … Jeffrey believed he was dealing with a bona fide official of the Zimbabwe Media Commission,” Moyo’s lawyer Doug Coltart told Reuters.

Moyo had also worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation charity.