The journalist was brought to court because

A court in Zimbabwe is due to deliver its verdict today in a trial of a journalist who works for the British newspaper The Guardian. The trial is seen as a test case for the country’s strict media laws. Andrew Meldrum, an American, who has been living in Zimbabwe for over twenty years, is accused of publishing an untrue story and faces up to 2 years in prison if found guilty. A dozen other journalists have also been charged with offences relating to the new laws. In court Meldrum’s defendant argued that his story was published in Britain. It was beyond the jurisdiction of Zimbabwe’s laws.