Sky crew thrown out of Zimbabwe

A British TV crew was ordered to leave Zimbabwe on Thursday night after the government claimed that they had entered the country illegally. According to officials, the two-member crew from Sky Television had "arrogantly" flown in, without government authority or permission from Zimbabwe's mission in the UK.

Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's information minister, said, "What makes the conduct of this crew appear deliberately contemptuous and thus reprehensible is the fact that before leaving Britain, the crew actually received a clear response from the department [of information] outlining the government position and expectation before its proposed visit.

"Accordingly, the department requires that forthwith, the Sky News crew complies with our national laws ... including the requirement that foreign media applicants secure permission to fly into the country for purposes of accreditation from their country of origin and work. Failure to comply would, naturally, trigger a decisive response from agencies whose duty it is to uphold the rule of law in the country."

That rule of law has been working overtime when it comes to foreign journalists. The BBC is already outlawed as a "terrorist organisation", and forced to do their reporting out of South Africa. And in the past week, Mihir Bose of the Daily Telegraph and Telford Vice of the Reuters agency were both asked to leave the country. The Guardian's Andrew Meldrum is another to have fallen foul of the authorities.

For their part, Sky denied that there had been any attempt to deceive the Zimbabwe government, saying that they believed that they had clearance to film a cricket-related story. "We are not sure that we are being thrown out," said Adrian Wells, head of Sky's foreign news. "We are just waiting to hear from the government to clarify what their attitude is. We are a bit surprised."

The Cricket Writers' Club has already complained to the International Cricket Council about the draconian restrictions placed on journalists seeking to cover cricket in Zimbabwe. "Our members must be allowed to carry out their duties free from censorship, threats or bullying wherever they are working, and we call on the authorities to safeguard our rights," said a statement earlier this week. "The International Cricket Council has a duty to ensure that our members, who promote and publicise the game of cricket, are treated with respect by all ten Test-playing nations."