The press rights groups Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders, RSF) has protested against the beatings of four journalists by Zimbabwean soldiers, in a statement received Thursday.
The group said it has sent a letter to Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo demanding an immediate investigation into the beatings of the journalists, who were covering food riots in Harare's townships on Wednesday.
In the letter, RSF secretary general Robert Menard also said the soldiers who committed the beatings should be punished, to prevent future incidents.
Photographer Rob Cooper and cameraman Chris Mazivanhanga, both from the Associated Press (AP), and reporter Vincent Murwira and cameraman Peter Maringisanwa, from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), were forced to lie spread-eagled on the ground and beaten in Dzivaresekwa township where they were covering the riots.
Mazivanhanga told AFP that they were not filming at the time of the attack.
He said about 15 soldiers blocked the road with three armored vehicles, mobbed the journalists' car, dragged them out and beat them with sticks and wire whips.
Two men in civilian clothes who were in the company of the soldiers confiscated the tapes of the footage they had filmed earlier.
Violent protests over the high cost of living rocked townships around the Zimbabwean capital Harare for three days, but the situation had calmed by Thursday -- HARARE (AFP)
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