By ANTARA News/DPA
Harare : Several journalists, including an American journalist, have been detained in Zimbabwe during a police search for journalists covering the country`s elections without accreditation, media and diplomatic sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA.
The York Lodge, a hotel popular with Western journalists, was raised Thursday evening by police, the hotel confirmed.
The raid was still ongoing, a receptionist told dpa by telephone. Police also searched the Meikles, a hotel popular with Western travellers, journalists said. The police reportedly said they were “looking for documents.”
It was not clear whether the journalists detained were accredited to cover last Saturday`s presidential, parliamentary and local elections.
Zimbabwe`s government refused accreditation to most Western journalists, accusing Western countries that had been banned from sending election monitors to the elections, of using journalists as their eyes and ears.
Before the elections the government threatened journalists who slipped into the country unaccredited with arrest and deportation.