Staff from a Zimbabwean free expression organisation have been arrested and detained. Advocacy officers Molly Chimhanda and Fadzai December from Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ), and an accompanying member of MMPZ, Gilbert Mabusa, were arrested on 5 December 2011 in the city of Gwanda.

The trio are being charged with “participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry,” following a meeting in November during which they distributed a DVD calling on the media to promote a peaceful electoral process.