The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
http://nypost.com/2017/11/04/nyu-grad-facing-jail-for-allegedly-ripping-sick-mugabe/
NYU grad facing jail for allegedly ripping ‘sick’ Mugabe
By Tamar Lapin
November 4, 2017 | 4:14pm
Martha O'Donovan
EPA
An NYU grad working for a Zimbabwean TV station faces 20 years in the slammer for allegedly insulting the country’s controversial leader on Twitter.
A magistrates court in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, on Saturday upheld the subversion charge against New Jersey native Martha O’Donovan after she was arrested for insulting President Robert Mugabe.
O’Donovan is also charged with undermining or insulting the authority of the president. She is due back in court on Nov. 15.
Police claim the 25-year-old tweeted that Mugabe was a “very selfish and sick man,” along with a photo accusing him of using a catheter last month, but O’Donovan denies the accusation as “baseless and malicious.”
The damning tweet was posted on the account @matigary and police said they’d traced the IP address to O’Donovan. The account was active on Friday and Saturday even though O’Donovan is in custody.
O’Donovan, an alum of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, has been in Zimbabwe for a year working as a project officer for satirical outlet Magamba TV and a bartender at local watering hole, Mars Bar.
O’Donovan studied the politics of human rights and development in the African city and was the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright award after graduating in 2014.
Earlier this year, she presented a talk on “How Zimbabweans Rebel Online” at the Re-publica Digital Culture Conference.
Activists, including the Committee to Protect Journalists in Africa, have called for her release using the hashtag #FreeMartha.
Relatives refused to comment when reached at their Bridgewater, NJ, home on Saturday.
Mugabe, 93, has been increasingly uneasy about social media activists after a pastor started the #ThisFlag movement last year to organize stay-at-home demonstrations against the government. Several journalists covering the protests were arrested and assaulted and the country has a “Not Free,” rating from the Freedom of the Press website.
The tyrant was honored at an event organized by then-New York City Councilman Charles "Slap YT" Barron at City Hall in 2002, which Mayor Bill de Blasio attended.
NYU grad facing jail for allegedly ripping ‘sick’ Mugabe
By Tamar Lapin
November 4, 2017 | 4:14pm
Martha O'Donovan
EPA
An NYU grad working for a Zimbabwean TV station faces 20 years in the slammer for allegedly insulting the country’s controversial leader on Twitter.
A magistrates court in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, on Saturday upheld the subversion charge against New Jersey native Martha O’Donovan after she was arrested for insulting President Robert Mugabe.
O’Donovan is also charged with undermining or insulting the authority of the president. She is due back in court on Nov. 15.
Police claim the 25-year-old tweeted that Mugabe was a “very selfish and sick man,” along with a photo accusing him of using a catheter last month, but O’Donovan denies the accusation as “baseless and malicious.”
The damning tweet was posted on the account @matigary and police said they’d traced the IP address to O’Donovan. The account was active on Friday and Saturday even though O’Donovan is in custody.
O’Donovan, an alum of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, has been in Zimbabwe for a year working as a project officer for satirical outlet Magamba TV and a bartender at local watering hole, Mars Bar.
O’Donovan studied the politics of human rights and development in the African city and was the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright award after graduating in 2014.
Earlier this year, she presented a talk on “How Zimbabweans Rebel Online” at the Re-publica Digital Culture Conference.
Activists, including the Committee to Protect Journalists in Africa, have called for her release using the hashtag #FreeMartha.
Relatives refused to comment when reached at their Bridgewater, NJ, home on Saturday.
Mugabe, 93, has been increasingly uneasy about social media activists after a pastor started the #ThisFlag movement last year to organize stay-at-home demonstrations against the government. Several journalists covering the protests were arrested and assaulted and the country has a “Not Free,” rating from the Freedom of the Press website.
The tyrant was honored at an event organized by then-New York City Councilman Charles "Slap YT" Barron at City Hall in 2002, which Mayor Bill de Blasio attended.
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