Zimbabwe Frees Times Reporter, British Journalist

New York Times reporter Barry Bearak and a British journalist were freed on bail today by Zimbabwean authorities, who arrested them last week for covering the country's presidential elections without government approval. Bearak was released to a clinic; he was injured in jail when he fell 7 feet from his bunk to the concrete cell floor.  

Robert Mugabe's government has often used accreditation laws as a way to limit foreign journalists covering economic and political turmoil in Zimbabwe, the Committee to Protect Journalists tells the New York Times. Of 300 requests to cover the elections, few were accepted. Several judges had declined to hear Bearak’s case, but he now has a court date for Thursday, his lawyer said. (More Zimbabwe stories.)