Media Monitors Arrested in Zimbabwe

An independent media monitoring group says police arrested three of its officials after a civic education meeting in western Zimbabwe that police called an illegal political gathering. The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe said in a statement Monday the three held a meeting in the western town of Gwanda last month that police now alleged had not been approved under the nation's sweeping security laws. The group said that during the meeting its officials met with its local members and distributed information calling for fair and balanced reporting on elections proposed next year. In a new media crackdown, four independent journalists have been arrested in the past two weeks for alleged criminal defamation of loyalists of President Robert Mugabe.