A Zimbabwean reporter who exposes human rights abuses, despite being jailed and having his life threatened by Robert Mugabe’s regime, is to be honoured by British journalists for upholding Parliamentary democracy.
Dumisani Muleya, chief reporter on the Zimbabwe Independent, is to receive the first award named after the House of Commons Speaker who granted journalists the right to report debates in the House of Commons.
Speaker Michael Martin, who chaired the panel of judges, will present the House of Commons Speaker Abbot Award to Muleya at a reception at Speaker’s House later this month.
The award was inaugurated to mark the bicentenary last year of the admission of the press to the House of Commons Chamber.
The judges were impressed by Muleya’s exposure of abuses in the 2000 parliamentary elections, the attacks on opposition supporters, and the rigging of the 2002 presidential poll and several by-elections.
By David Rose
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