It said in a statement: "Journalism has become a very dangerous profession in Zimbabwe and journalists must be prepared to put up with all this harassment ..."The Zimbabwe government has accused Mr Nyarota and Mr Mbanga of misleading the Zimbabwe Investment Centre (ZIC) about the shareholding structure of the Daily News when the newspaper was started in 1998. It has also accused them of flouting investment laws and exchange control regulations. The journalists have denied the allegations.ZIC, an arm of the Ministry of Finance, has since cancelled the investment certificate of the Daily News, which means it should discontinue publishing.Mr Nyarota said the government had not yet closed down his newspaper though he could not rule out that possibility.The paper's printing press was bombed early this year but no one has been arrested over the attack. Seven journalists from the Daily News have been arrested and charged with criminal defamation in the past two months.Meanwhile, a white farmer, Billy Swan, was also arrested at his farm in Mhangura early yesterday. Police accused him of burning down a hut built by an illegal settler on his property.
But Mr Swan's wife said the hut was burnt in a bush fire.He will spend the night in cells and is expected to appear in court to be charged today.On Wednesday, 50 armed policemen raided the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city. The police said they were investigating the alleged abduction of a ruling party supporter by the MDC. It denies ever having been involved in any abduction.* The UN World Food Programme said yesterday it was planning a relief food operation for more than 500,000 Zimbabweans at risk of starvation, in response to a request from the Zimbabwean government.Members of the programme who were recently in the country had recommended emergency intervention to feed 558,000 rural people who face acute food shortages.. Nicola Roxon, the Labour MP for Gellibrand, is usually a passionate advocate of multiculturalism.
Her constituency in Melbourne's western suburbs has been a first port of call for migrants since the 1950s and is home to more than 100 nationalities But for the past month Ms Roxon has been strangely silent. Nicola Roxon, the Labour MP for Gellibrand, is usually a passionate advocate of multiculturalism. Her constituency in Melbourne's western suburbs has been a first port of call for migrants since the 1950s and is home to more than 100 nationalities. But for the past month Ms Roxon has been strangely silent. She is not alone. With both main parties seeking to woo voters in tomorrow's general election by exploiting public fears over refugees, political debate has been gagged.Just two MPs – one from Labour, one from the ruling Liberals – have questioned the hardline stance of their respective parties; they were persuaded to step back into line.Asylum-seekers have provided the backdrop to the election campaign, which officially started five weeks ago but in reality began in August when the government of John Howard, the Prime Minister, took the audacious decision to turn away 433 Afghans rescued in the Indian Ocean by a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa.Mr Howard, who had been trailing in the polls because of tax reforms and high fuel prices, watched his popularity skyrocket and knew this was an issue that could save his political skin. He sent warships to patrol the coastline; boat people who managed to reach Australia were dispersed around the South Pacific for processing.These steps were endorsed by Kim Beazley, the Labour leader, who presumably decided he could not afford to take a more principled stand so close to an election. He boasted of Labour's own tough credentials, reminding voters it was his party that introduced the policy of detaining asylum-seekers in grim Outback camps.Not until this week was the ugly political consensus finally challenged, with church leaders, academics and former senior politicians condemning the parties for pandering to the electorate's basest instincts.Malcolm Fraser, a Liberal former prime minister, said "the poor, the destitute, those seeking to flee hunger, brutality and tyranny" were being victimised.Ian George, Archbishop of Adelaide, said inhumane policies towards asylum-seekers – who come mainly from Afghanistan and the Middle East – were "destroying our international reputation, brutalising people's attitudes and making us a less compassionate people".Their dismay was echoed in Footscray, the bustling, working-class neighbourhood at the heart of Gellibrand, where post-war immigrants from Italy, Greece and Macedonia were followed by Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s and, most recently, by those from war-torn African nations.At the Migrant Resource Centre, Sohara Hassanbeed, a young Somalian, expressed her disappointment.
