papers and arrested reporters. Leo Mugabe, a nephew of President Robert Mugabe and a member of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), told about 200 journalists at a meeting to launch the council that they should avoid confrontation with the authorities. The government introduced tough media laws five years ago, imposing state permits on local reporters and barring foreign journalists from working permanently in the country. The voluntary media council is a bid to supervise and maintain professional and ethical conduct among journalists in the face of government charges that the media is unprofessional. • ALERT Date: January 25, 2007 Persons: Arnold Tsunga Violation: Threatened Prominent human rights lawyer Arnold Tsunga said he was briefly detained by state agents at Harare International Airport on January 25, 2007. This was after they saw his name on a government ‘hit list.’Tsunga, who is the Director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and acting secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, had just arrived in Zimbabwe with six other lawyers and had been cleared by customs when he was surrounded by the four men dressed in suits. Tsunga said he was confronted as he left the arrivals terminal. He said security officials demanded to see his passport and when he asked for their identities they refused and literally dragged him through a corridor into an office at the airport. There they demanded to also see his two bags. Tsunga said this was not a routine customs process because of the way he was confronted. He said one of the men is a well know CIO who is involved in the vetting of people as they enter and exit the country. The human rights lawyer joins a list of other prominent Zimbabweans activists who have had their passports scrutinised or seized. Last year Newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube had his passport seized, as did Raymond Majongwe the Secretary General of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and opposition official Paul Themba Nyathi. Tsunga confirmed seeing a list, when one of the state agents grabbed his passport. “He had two A4 pages which had a list of individuals. So he compared the name on my passport and one of the names that was on the list. And when it matched that is when he said step inside.” He believes the persecution of human rights activists in Zimbabwe is a systematic exercise, which is carried out very deliberately. Tsunga said it would be foolish not to expect most human rights defenders to be on that government “hit list.” • ALERT Date: January 24, 2007 Persons: Media in Zimbabwe Violation: Other The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) increased radio and television licence fees by more than 100 percent. • ALERT Date: January 22, 2007 Persons: Zimbabwean citizens, SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 Violation: Censored At least 42 radios are reported to have been confiscated by state security agents in rural areas, allegedly to stop people listening to independent radio broadcasts. Several teachers are said to have fled some schools while others have been sent on forced leave as a result of intimidation So This Is Democracy? 2007 -139- Media Institute of Southern Africa