Zimbabwe journalist 'not released'

It is illegal to criticise Mugabe

Journalist Peta Thornycroft is spending her third day in detention on Friday, despite reports on state-owned media that she had been released.

A spokesman for her lawyers said she was being detained on "orders from a very high level".

I had only been there three hours and was having a cup of tea when I was arrested

Peta Thornycroft

The Zimbabwe correspondent for Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper is being held under new security and media laws which outlaw criticism of the president . She could face up to five years in prison.

Mrs Thornycroft, 57, was arrested on Wednesday in the eastern resort town of Chimanimani, while investigating reports of violence against opposition activists.

Referring to her reported release, the spokesman, Tapiwanashe Kujinga, told Associated Press: "That is all rubbish... It is sickening that they should say she has been released when she is still in custody."

'Ludicrous'

Mr Kujinga said Mrs Thornycroft's case was now being handled by the ministry of Nicholas Goche, who heads Zimbabwe's secret police - the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Thornycroft is the first journalist detained under new media laws

On Thursday, she was transferred from Chimanimani to a jail cell in the regional capital, Mutare.

The editor of the Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore, said the allegations against her were "ludicrous".

Mrs Thornycroft was born in the UK, but she is now a Zimbabwean citizen.

Widowed

She is the first journalist to be detained since a media bill was signed into law days after Mr Mugabe's controversial re-election earlier this month.

Independent journalists have complained of a campaign of state harassment for a number of years.

The printing press of the only privately-owned daily newspaper, The Daily News, was bombed in 2001 and no arrests have been made.

In 1998, two journalists were illegally detained by the military and tortured for several days.

Using her lawyer's mobile phone, Mrs Thorvcroft denied any wrong-doing.

"I didn't have a chance to file a word or to do a proper interview with anybody. I had only been there three hours and was having a cup of tea when I was arrested."

Now widowed, Mrs Thornycroft has a son, daughter and granddaughter.

She has worked for the Daily Telegraph since last June and also works for South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper.