JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 21 -- Three journalists who covered Zimbabwe for foreign media organizations left the country after they were interrogated by police last week about allegations that they broke the country's tough media and security laws.
The departures leave just a handful of foreign media outlets in Zimbabwe to cover parliamentary elections set for March 31.
Angus Shaw of the Associated Press, Brian Latham of Bloomberg News and Jan Raath of the Times of London and the German press agency DPA decided to leave Zimbabwe following sessions with the police that focused on investigations of possible espionage, working without proper accreditation and violation of Zimbabwe's strict currency laws. All three are Zimbabwean citizens.
No charges were brought and none of the men was detained.
Jonathan Clayton, the Africa bureau chief for the Times of London, said Raath and the two others, who worked from the same building, faced "several days of harassment" before Raath decided to leave.
"He left because he was tipped off they were going to be arrested for alleged spying," Clayton said.
In a personal account published in South Africa's Independent on Sunday, Latham denied contravening Zimbabwe's media laws.
"Nothing I ever reported was untrue or biased. Which is why they could never raise a legitimate charge against me and instead had to manufacture some silly allegations," he wrote.
Only a few foreign news organizations, including Reuters, Agence-France Presse and Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, now have reporters based in Harare, the capital.
