Journalist flees for his life after death threat by top police officer.

Kwenda's exile at a time when a new unity government installed in February was promising serious media reforms to enable several newspapers shut down over the years to come back has disappointed media rights activists.

Kwenda decided to flee Zimbabwe after he received a phone call from a senior police officer on 15 January 2010 in which he was threatened him with death over a story he had written in the London based Zimbabwean newspaper.

The police officer allegedly told Kwenda that he would not survive the weekend. Kwenda decided not to take chances after getting the threat, particularly in this country in which impunity reigns supreme and in which a colleague of his freelance cameraman, Edward Chikombo, who used to assist foreign news crews, was abducted from his home and brazenly murdered by state security agents who then dumped his body at a recreational dam last year. No one has been arrested in connection with Chikombo's case and many others in which journalists have been targeted

Kwenda who is a member of MISA-Zimbabwe's Harare Advocacy Committee, is also the director of the Artists for Democracy Zimbabwe Trust (ADZT).

MISA-Zimbabwe said it condemned the development as yet another serious threat to media freedom and the right of journalists to conduct their lawful professional duties without fear or hindrance from any quarters.

The press freedom lobby group urged the inclusive government and the Police Commissioner General , Augustine Chihuri, to unequivocally guarantee the safety of journalists and to assure Kwenda of his security pending full investigations into the alleged threats.