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"Little did I know that by end of that day, I would be part of the statistics"
Zimonline carries the heartbreaking testimony of Index on Censorship contributor Stanley Kwenda, who was forced to flee Zimbabwe after receiving threats last week:
Friday began with the normal routine, which means grabbing all the newspapers I can lay my hands on just to check what’s happening around.
I had just received a copy of British-based Index on Censorship 2009 Review. From the moment I flipped open the first chapter, I could never put the book down.
The stories told in the book of how some journalists elsewhere in the world have stood up to tyranny — with some even getting killed in the process — in order to be able to practise their profession are encouraging.
Although, I must admit, there is something quite disturbing about knowing that someone could order your death simply because you dared tell a story.
Somewhere, on one of the pages of the Index, there was a long list of journalists who have either been harassed, incarcerated or lost their lives in the line of duty. Interestingly, some of them were from Zimbabwe — and little did I know that by end of that day, I would be part of the statistics.
And read Stanley Kwenda’s Index article on Zimbabwean censorship here