Bittersweet Victory

In a stunning setback for Ian Smith's authoritarian regime, the appellate division of Rhodesia's high court last week overturned the conviction of Journalist Peter Niesewand for violation of the Official Secrets Act. Chief Justice Sir Hugh Beadle, in announcing the unanimous ruling, twitted the Smith government's case against Niesewand: "Factual evidence as opposed to opinion was never given." The court found that Niesewand's reports on guerrilla activity against Rhodesian forces near the Mozambique frontier last year had not damaged the state, but had merely embarrassed the government.

For two days after the verdict, Niesewand, 28, remained in jail--where he had been since Feb. 20 under an order sanctioned by the government's emergency powers (TIME, March 19). Until his detention, Niesewand had been a protean freelance, representing the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, U.P.I., Agence France-Presse and a number of London and South African papers. His determined digging into Rhodesian affairs consistently angered Smith's white-supremacist government. Under unaccustomed fire from the Rhodesian press, officials promised to "review" the detention order. Late last week, Niesewand was released and immediately deported--an act that turned the reporter's personal triumph into professional defeat.

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