Zimbabwe fallout within the youth league’s leadership ranks. On 1 September 2016, freelance photojournalist Crispen Ndlovu was admitted to a private hospital in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo after he was reportedly attacked and arrested by members of the anti-riot police on 31 August 2016. According to media reports, Ndlovu was arrested while taking pictures of the police as they allegedly assaulted Alfred Dzirutwe, spokesperson of the Bulawayo Youths Arise during protests against President Mugabe’s leadership and rising unemployment. Meanwhile, MISA Zimbabwe agreed to work with the police and other security arms of the state to secure a safe media environment ahead of the 2018 elections following yet another meeting with the police in December 2017. The first such meeting was held in September 2016. The Zimbabwe Republic Police and representatives of media organisations led by MISA Zimbabwe Trustee, Cris Chinaka, on 20 December 2017 met in Harare and agreed on a raft of actions to secure a safe and conducive working environment for journalists. The police delegation was led by Police Spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba. The proposed resolutions and action plans were aimed at improving the professional working relationship between the media and the police through agreed-upon work plans and timeframes for ease of monitoring of progress. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ONLINE In his address during the opening of the 5th Session of the 8th Parliament, Presi- dent Robert Mugabe, before his removal from office, expressed hope that Parliament would debate and finalise the three cyber law related Bills, Zimbabwe had been working on since mid-2013. With that in mind, the government created the Ministry of Cybersecurity, Mitigation and Threat Detection. At face value, such actions give the impression that the Zimbabwean government was taking serious measures to combat potential cyber threats. If past trends were anything to go by, there was high probability that the proposed cyber crimes and cyber security laws would be selectively applied through various state institutions to persecute any dissenting voices in online spaces. Government efforts in combating online criminal activity had resulted in the passing of the National ICT Policy, the National Cyber Security Policy (both in 2016), and the updating of the draft Cy- So This is Democracy? 2017 145