‘Free at last’: Zimbabwe High Court quashes criminal charges against editor Faith Zaba over satirical column

A Zimbabwean high court has thrown out criminal charges against Faith Zaba, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, and her publisher, ending a prosecution that ran for nearly a year. 

A veteran journalist of more than three decades, Zaba is the first woman to edit the Independent, one of Zimbabwe’s most respected newspapers. 

Zaba and her publisher, Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), had been charged with “undermining the authority of or insulting the President” under Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which carries up to a year in prison, a fine or both, after her paper published a satirical column criticising President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.  

On 22 June 2026, High Court judge Emelia Muchawa quashed the charges, and the case was struck off the court roll on 30 June. 

“Free at last,” Zaba wrote after the ruling, calling the judgment “vindication” and “a powerful affirmation” of press freedom. 

Media Defence supported Zaba’s legal defence and welcomes the ruling, while urging scrutiny of the law that enabled the charges and how readily it can be misused to silence dissent. 

The charges stemmed from a satirical column 

On 27 June 2025, the Independent published an instalment of its long-running Muckraker column, which criticised Mnangagwa’s leadership and Zimbabwe’s conduct as chair of the Southern African Development Community.  

The piece questioned the government’s democratic record, alleged Zimbabwe’s interference in recent elections in neighbouring Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia, and suggested it was preoccupied with holding on to power. 

On 1 July, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint. Zaba was arrested and spent three nights in custody at Chikurubi Female Prison before being granted bail on 4 July. 

The state alleged the article was false and designed to stir hostility towards the President. Her detention and the proceedings against her drew protest from local, regional and international press-freedom groups, who saw the prosecution as part of a broader pattern of pressure on Zimbabwe’s independent media. 

The personal toll 

Zaba described the year following her arrest as “one of the most difficult periods of my life,” marked by “fear, uncertainty, exhaustion and profound emotional strain.” 

“This victory belongs not only to me, but to every journalist who has ever been threatened, intimidated or prosecuted for doing their job,” she wrote. “I emerge from this experience scarred, but stronger. Grateful, but changed. Tired, but hopeful. And above all, free.” 

Zaba thanked her lawyers, colleagues and the many local and international organisations that had backed her. 

The defence’s challenge to the charges 

Lawyers Chris Mhike and Alec Muchadehama, working with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, argued that the charge sheet failed to identify the allegedly false statements, making it impossible for the accused to understand the case against them. They also argued that the article was published in a column known for irony, exaggeration and parody, and that Zaba, as an employee rather than the publisher, had been wrongly conflated with AMH. 

A magistrate had refused to quash the charges in December 2025. On review, Justice Muchawa overturned that decision, ordering that the criminal trial against Zaba and AMH be discontinued and that they be removed from remand. Importantly, Justice Muchawa said her decision was not based solely on procedural shortcomings but also upheld the article as satire and legitimate social commentary, finding merit in the defence’s argument that the prosecution sought to criminalise it. 

A fragile climate for free expression 

Zimbabwe’s Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and of the media under Section 61, yet practice falls well short of the text. Freedom House rates the country “not free”, and it sits 124th of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, down from 106th the year before.  

Although RSF noted some improvement since Robert Mugabe’s fall in 2017, with wider access to information and less self-censorship, persecution of the press has again grown since President Mnangagwa’s 2023 re-election, and the state still dominates the media landscape. 

Much of the pressure now runs through legislation. The 2023 amendment to the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, created an offence of wilfully damaging the country’s sovereignty and national interest, carrying penalties of up to ten years in prison.  

In April 2025, Mnangagwa also signed the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Act, which gives the statewide powers over the registration, funding and governance of non-governmental organisations and criminalises non-compliance.  

Human Rights Watch, United Nations experts and others described it as a serious restriction on civic space, and the European Union suspended some governance funding after it passed. 

On 7 July 2026, Mnangagwa signed into law the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3), which extends presidential and parliamentary terms from five years to seven and allows the president to be chosen by parliament rather than by direct popular vote.  

The change keeps Mnangagwa, 83, in office until 2030, two years beyond the end of his second term, and comes despite his earlier pledge not to serve past the two terms the 2013 Constitution allows. Parliament approved the amendment in June by more than the required two-thirds majority.  

Rights groups say the cumulative effect is a shrinking space for independent reporting, with self-censorship, monitoring of online activity and the recurrent use of criminal law against critics. Zaba was one such target, as was her AMH colleague Blessed Mhlanga, who was detained for weeks on incitement charges over a video interview with a war veteran critical of the government. 

A narrow victory 

Although Media Defence welcomes the ruling, and the court’s recognition of the column as protected satire sets a useful precedent for other journalists, it remains a narrow one.  

The UN, African human-rights bodies and other international mechanisms have long criticised laws that criminalise insulting officials as a disproportionate limit on free expression. The survival of Section 33 leaves journalists exposed to prosecution for legitimate criticism and satire. 

“No journalist should have to endure arrest, imprisonment and prosecution simply for doing their job,” Zaba said. “Journalism is not a crime.”