Zimbabwe reporter fined on accreditation for New York Times

By FARAI MUTSAKA
Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean court on Tuesday convicted a journalist on charges of breaking the country’s immigration laws by allegedly arranging fake accreditation for two correspondents for the New York Times. Media freedom advocacy group, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, said that the Bulawayo Magistrates Court fined Jeffrey Moyo 200,000 Zimbabwe dollars, equivalent to about $650 U.S. dollars, and also imposed a suspended two-year sentence. Police arrested Moyo in May last year and accused him of facilitating fraudulent accreditation for two foreign journalists from the New York newspaper who were in Zimbabwe on a reporting trip. The two journalists were deported, while Moyo spent about three weeks in detention before being released on bail.