VOICE of the People Radio executive director, John Masuku, arrested on Monday for allegedly breaching the Broadcasting Act, has been remanded out of custody.
Masuku was released yesterday morning after paying a $4 million bail and will appear in court on 13 January next year. An urgent application to have Masuku released, which was set to be heard in the High Court at 12PM was cancelled after the journalist was brought before the magistrate court earlier yesterday.
The Standard understands that police want the organisation's chairman, David Masunda, to hand himself in for further questioning on the radio station's operations.
Masuku and Masunda handed themselves in to the police on Monday after warrants of their arrest were issued last week on Friday. Police released Masunda on Monday evening with no charge but detained Masuku.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday soon after Masuku's release, Rangu Nyamurundira, Masuku's lawyer, said he was happy with the court's decision to release his client.
Naymurundira added police had obtained a warrant for further detention for his client who spent four days without appearing in court, in unclear circumstances.
Police raided the VOP offices last week on Thursday in a fresh crackdown on the media and arrested three journalists and confiscated equipment and documents.
The reporters, Maria Nyanyiwa, Nyasha Bosha and Kundai Mugwanda, spent four days in prison but were not charged.
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VOP Radio broadcasts from a transmitter in Madagascar, which is operated by Radio Netherlands. VOP has been broadcasting from Madagascar since its Zimbabwe studios were destroyed in August 2002.
Meanwhile the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned government's continued harassment of journalists working in the private media.
Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Regional Office said: "We are dismayed by this latest attack on Zimbabwean journalism. This crack down is part of President Mugabe's attempt to crush all opposition and silence any voice that affirms democracy and freedom of speech in Zimbabwe."
Baglo called on the African Union and the United Nations to help stop the harassment of journalists in the private media by Mugabe's government.
Recently, immigration authorities seized the passport of the The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard chairman, Trevor Ncube, as part of its crackdown on independent media.
The passport was subsequently returned after Ncube, through his lawyers, Scanlen and Holderness, obtained a court order which declared that the "the purported invalidation or withdrawal or cancellation of the applicant's passport is unlawful, null, void and of no force or effect."
