Victory for journalists as ConCourt rules that criminal defamation law is invalid

Criminal defamation law under which several journalists were arrested during a discharge of their duties is invalid and a dead law, the Constitutional Court has ruled.

Journalists who criminally defame people in the course of their work cannot be arrested because Section 96 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act is a dead law, said the Constitutional Court.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, sitting with eight other judges, granted an application by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Zimbabwe Chapter) and ruled that the law had since its promulgation in 2004 been an invalid law.

The court held that the 2015 judgment issued in the criminal defamation challenge by former Standard Newspaper editor Nevanji Madanhire was binding even in terms of the new Constitution.

Details to follow.....