❖ Arrests, threats and harassment of journalists While the country was beginning to experience steady decline in the number of media freedom violations in the wake of the 2013 Constitution and its explicit provisions on freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information, these regrettably shot up in 2018. Several of the violations recorded in 2018 occurred during the election and post-election period. For instance, a total of seven (7) journalists were unlawfully arrested or detained in 2017 compared to 23 journalists the previous year. This marked a decline of almost 70% (69.5%). In 2017, MISA Zimbabwe recorded the specific assault of eight (8) journalists during the course of their duties compared to the 12 recorded in 2016. Then, the majority of the cases of assault of journalists on duty were perpetrated by the police. However, the situation deteriorated in 2018. During the period under review there was an upsurge in the number of media violations recorded through the issuance of 32 Alerts compared to 11 in 2017, marking an increase of 190%. A total of 14 journalists were assaulted compared to eight (8) in 2017, an increase of 86%.