Geoffrey Nyarota
Geoffrey Nyarota | |
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Born | c. 1951 Golden Pen of Freedom Award (2002) (2002)UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize |
Geoffrey Nyarota (born c. 1951)
When Nyarota was subsequently removed from his post, he spent several years teaching in exile before returning to open the independent Daily News. Bearing the motto "Telling it like it is", the Daily News swiftly became Zimbabwe's most popular newspaper. However, the paper also suffered two bombings, allegedly by Zimbabwean security forces. Nyarota was arrested six times and reportedly was the target of a government assassination plot. After being forced from the paper by new management in December 2002, Nyarota left Zimbabwe.
In exile in the United States, he began The Zimbabwe Times, an online newspaper. His memoir Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman was published in South Africa in 2006.
Early life
Nyarota was born in
When
"Willowgate" scandal
In 1989, he was editor of the state-owned Bulawayo Chronicle. The paper built a reputation for aggressive investigations into corruption at all levels of government, and Nyarota became "something of a hero". In the "Willowgate" investigation, Nyarota and deputy editor Davison Maruziva reported that ministers and officials from the government of President Robert Mugabe had been given early access to buy foreign cars at an assembly plant in Willowvale, an industrial suburb of Harare.[4] In some cases, the cars were bought wholesale and resold at a 200% profit.[5] The newspaper published documents from the plant to prove its case, including identification numbers from the vehicles.[4]
Mugabe appointed a three-person panel, the Sandura Commission, to investigate the allegations. The
However, Nyarota and Maruziva were both forced out of their jobs with the state-owned paper and into newly created public relations positions in Harare.[6] Though the men were given pay raises, Mugabe also stated that the move was a result of their "overzealousness", leading to public belief that they had been removed for their reporting. ZANU parliamentarians also criticized Nyarota and Maruziva, with the Minister of State for National Security stating that criticism was welcome, but "to the extent that the press now deliberately target Government as their enemy, then we part ways."[7]
Nyarota then spent several years in self-imposed exile, teaching journalism in South Africa.[1]
Daily News
In 1999, Nyarota founded the
Within a year, the newspaper had passed the circulation of the state-owned
During his editorship of the Daily News, Nyarota was arrested six times.[9] On 1 August 2000, the News reported that Zimbabwe's secret police, the Central Intelligence Organisation, had sent a man named Bernard Masara to kill Nyarota; however, after meeting Nyarota in a lift, Masara changed his mind and warned him of the plot. Masara then called his employer with the paper's editors listening so that they could verify the source of the plan.[10]
On 22 April 2000, a bomb was thrown into the paper's offices, but no one was hurt. South African Associated Press photographer Obed Zilwa was arrested for the attack, but the newspaper alleged that agents of Mugabe's security forces had thrown the bomb.[6] Zilwa was released without charge 48 hours later.[11] In January 2001, the News building was bombed again, this time destroying its printing presses. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, "credible sources" linked the Zimbabwean military to the attack.[12]
On 30 December 2002, Nyarota resigned as editor of the Daily News, to avoid his firing by the paper's new executive chair.[1] The paper was shut down by the government in September 2003.[3]
Later career
In 2003, Nyarota and his family fled to South Africa and later to the United States.[9] There, Nyarota was awarded a fellowship at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.[3] He also taught journalism classes at Bard College.[13]
In 2006, he released his first book, Against the Grain. The memoir tells of his experiences as a schoolteacher in Rhodesia and later as a journalist under Mugabe's rule.[9] From exile, he also began the website www.thezimbabwetimes.com, describing Internet news as the "loophole" in Zimbabwean government censorship.[1]
Awards
In 2001, the
Personal life
Nyarota has a wife, Ursula, and three children.[9]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Winston W. Wiley (24 December 2006). "A defiant voice: African journalist delivers news from afar". Telegram & Gazette. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b c "Geoffrey Nyarota: a defiant voice". CNN. 16 August 2001. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d e "Geoffrey Nyarota, Zimbabwe". World Association of Newspapers. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b Jane Perlez (20 January 1989). "Zimbabwe Reads of Officials' Secrets". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b Karl Maier (15 April 1989). "3 Cabinet Ministers Quit in Zimbabwe as Corruption Report Is Published". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b c "Zimbabwe Crisis: Foreign journalist held over newspaper bomb". The Independent. 28 April 2000. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ISBN 9781452043944.
- ^ Lewis Machipisa (1 April 1999). "New Independent Daily Launched". Inter-Press Service. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Karen Breytenbach (12 June 2007). "Acclaimed Zim journalist pens harrowing, moving memoirs". The Cape Times.[dead link]
- ^ "Zimbabwe 'murder plot' fails". BBC News. 1 August 2000. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ Steven Tsoroti (20 November 2001). "Independent Newspaper Battles Closure". worldpress.org. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b "International Press Freedom Awards 2001". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 28 August 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
- ^ Angelique Serrao (2 September 2006). "Geoff Nyarota has fled from the despotic Mugabe regime, but he hopes to return one day". The Saturday Star. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ "Geoffrey Nyarota of Zimbabwe awarded World Press Freedom Prize 2002". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2002. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2012.