Financial Gazette (Harare)
11 November 2008
Harare — THE British journalist arrested last week on allegations of practicing without state accreditation has skipped bail.
Phillip Warrington Taylor who was expected in court yesterday failed to turn up.
His lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, told Harare magistrate, Catherine Chimanda that he received a text message from Taylor on Tuesday informing him that he had left the country and was now in South Africa.
Taylor was last Friday granted $150,000 bail and ordered to surrender his travel documents.
He had been expected to appear in court on allegations of practicing journalism in the country without accreditation.
He is however, thought to have jumped the border after evading immigration officials at Beitbridge Border post.
Taylor was arrested on October 30 by members of the Central Intelligence Organisation at the Harare International Airport aboard a flight that was about to take off after he had spent 30 days in Zimbabwe.
According to his lawyer, Taylor was denying the charges saying he was only a visitor and never practiced journalism during his month-long stay in Zimbabwe.
Several foreign journalists have been arrested and arraigned before the courts for practicing journalism without accreditation.
The Media and Information Commission has temporarily suspended the accreditation of journalists pending the gazetting of fees by the Ministry of Information and Publicity. Information secretary, George Charamba, said the fees would be gazetted "very soon"
"As you know there are many things happening on the legal front. Let things settle first and then we will attend to that," Charamba said.
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