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 31 Alerts compared to 11 in 2017, marking an increase of 182%. A total of 14 journalists were assaulted compared to eight (8) in 2017 an increase of 86%. Commendably so, no journalist was arrested, detained or assaulted by the police in the first six months of 2018 and during the election period and more-so during the election-related demonstrations that rocked Harare on 1 August 2018. However, a member of the riot police shoved one foreign journalist Joseph Cotterill, with a rifle butt when the police put up a blockade at an MDC Alliance election-related press conference at a Harare hotel on 3 August 2018. The other three cases involved the assault of journalists by the military during the violent demonstrations in Harare on 1 August 2018. However, this changed during the post-election period in September. For instance, freelance journalist Columbus Mavhunga, was detained for close to three hours during a police crackdown on vendors in Harare on 16 September 2018. Mavhunga was detained after he refused to delete footage he had recorded of the police arresting vendors in the Central Business District (CBD). He endured a three-hour ordeal as the police officers drove around with him while they continued with their arrests of vendors. Mavhunga was only released after interventions by national police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba. 10