WAN protest to Mugabe over press persecution

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has written to Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe to protest at the "indefensible persecution" of newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube. The owner of two weeklies, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard, has been stripped of his Zimbabwean citizenship on the grounds that his father was Zambian. But WAN's letter says the refusal to renew Ncube's passport is "a blatant and transparent attempt to close his newspapers" and concludes that the action "removes any remaining doubt that your objective is the complete elimination of free expression." (Via Editors weblog)