Hopewell Chin'ono

(asked on 21st July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussion he has had with his Zimbabwean counterpart on the recent arrest of the journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on the charge of inciting violence as a result of his reporting of alleged corruption at high levels in the Government in Zimbabwe.


Answered by
James Duddridge Portrait
James Duddridge
This question was answered on 1st September 2020

The UK is deeply worried by the arrest of Hopewell Chin'ono on 20 July, and by his continued detention. I tweeted on 23 July to express my concern at the treatment of Mr Chin'ono and to urge the Zimbabwean authorities to uphold the right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Zimbabwe's constitution. When I spoke to the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister, Sibusiso Moyo, on 8 June, I urged him to ensure the Government of Zimbabwe makes concrete progress on human rights and respects the rule of law. The British Ambassador to Harare also met with the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister on Friday 14 August and raised our concerns. Officials at the British Embassy in Harare are closely following developments on Mr Chin'ono's case.

The UK is committed to the promotion of media freedom and the protection of journalists. Media freedom is an essential quality of any open society. People must be allowed to discuss and debate issues freely, to challenge their governments, and to make decisions informed by a strong and robust media. Zimbabwe is one of the UK's Media Freedom Focus Countries: we have called on the Government of Zimbabwe to commit to the Global Pledge on Media Freedom and to end the harassment of journalists, improve legislation and work with the international community to protect media freedom.

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