Stephen Bevan is back

Stephen Bevan, freelancer for the Telegraph and Barry Bearak from the New York Times left Zimbabwe yesterday. The duo were arrested some two weeks ago, however the law they were arrested under had been scrapped earlier in 2008. The charges didn’t stick. Bevan is now back home in South Africa. He tells of his time in the Harare prison on Telegraph TV. He’ll also be writing about his experience in the Sunday Telegraph.

“It’s the filthiest place I have ever been in my life. It’s infested with lice and all sorts of other biting insects, but the worst thing is for many of the people there, no-one knows they are there and if no-one brings them food they get no food.” link

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders expresses its deep concern about freelance journalist Frank Chikowore,

[he] was arrested by police near his Harare home on 15 April 2008 and has since been held in an unknown location. The organisation also calls for the release of British journalist Jonathan Clayton, who was arrested at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo international airport in Bulawayo on 9 April. link

UPDATE: Clayton has been deported,

British journalist Jonathan Clayton, a correspondent for “The Times” of London, was deported to South Africa after being sentenced on 16 April 2008 by a court in Bulawayo to a 20 billion Zimbabwean dollar fine (approx. 150 euros) link