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Out of Jail on Bail, Zimbabwe Journalist Vows to Continue Denouncing
Corruption

Columbus Mavhunga

   HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono has vowed to
   continue speaking out against corruption after his release on bail
   following three weeks in detention. Chin'ono is facing charges of
   "peddling falsehoods" on social media -- charges he denies.

   Journalist Hopewell Chin'ono, who was released from Chikurubi Maximum
   Prison on Wednesday after paying about $2,000 in bail, is defiant and
   bitter about his 19 days in detention on a charge that carries a jail
   sentence of up to 20 years if convicted.

   "In the past six months have spent 80 days behind that filthy prison on
   trumped up charges, simply because I am talking about corruption,
   simply because I am making citizens understand the impact of corruption
   and how it is related to their suffering: to the failure by the
   government to put drugs in hospitals, to fix roads, to deliver water in
   people's homes," said Chin'ono. "I am a journalist and I will continue
   doing journalism. I haven't broken any laws of this country. It is
   political persecution, as I have been saying since day one when I was
   first arrested on the 20th of July."

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