Knox Grad Released from Jail in Zimbabwe

New York Times reporter and Knox College graduate Barry Bearak, who will receive an honorary degree from the College in June, has given details on his release from jail in Zimbabwe, in an interview with National Public Radio and a published report in the New York Times.

A court in Zimbabwe dismissed charges against Bearak on April 16, and he returned to Johannesburg, where he and his wife his wife, Celia Dugger, are co-chiefs of the New York Times bureau in South Africa.

Bearak was jailed April 3, after the government of Zimbabwe "banned most foreign journalists from covering the elections and barred Western election observers," the Times reported. After four days in jail, he was released on bail and taken to a clinic for treatment of injuries sustained while in custody.

Bearak is a  1971 Knox graduate and Pulitzer Prize winner. His last story from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, prior to his arrest on April 3 reported on the recent election returns indicating that "President Mugabe and his party have lost control of the nation's Parliament..."

After the election, he and other foreign journalists were "charged with illegally observing an election without official accreditation," the Times reported.

Bearak has worked for the New York Times since 1997. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bearak gave the Opening Convocation Address at Knox in 2002 and received a Knox College Alumni Achievement Award in 2003.

Barry Bearak at a campus talk in 2002.